A council is fighting back against messy dog owners who don’t clear up after their pets.

Worthing Borough Council is encouraging dirty dog owners to ‘clean it up’ by painting bright yellow signs around the town’s various parks and pavements.

Dog warden Russ Akehurst said the scheme was launched two weeks ago because dog fouling in the town had been “one of the biggest problems for the council for a number of years”.

Council chiefs target problem areas for dog mess based on the number of complaints they had received from peeved residents.

The taxpayer-funded scheme has been spotted in Victoria Park, Homefield Park and Portland Road, among other places.

Conservative councillor Clive Roberts, cabinet member for the environment at Worthing Borough Council, said the paint used is biodegradable and lasts two to three months.

He said: “The idea came after I received a letter from a frustrated resident who told me about a similar scheme in London.

“It’s relatively inexpensive. The template costs around £200 and then there’s just the cost for the paint.

“We target problem areas where residents tell us about, with the intention of letting people with dogs see them, so it heightens their awareness, and to give confidence to people without dogs to ask pet owners to ‘clean it up’.

“They’re not permanent and disappear after a few months, which means they’re more effective and can appear at different areas over time.

“It’s not our intention to blanket the whole borough though.”

Councillor Roberts said the town had seen a reduction of dog mess since the introduction of the stencil scheme.

He added: “We had a cleaning session in Homefield Park the other month which collected around 400 separate pieces of mess.

“Since the scheme’s come in the latest collection was less than half that I believe.

“I’d recommend it to other authorities.”

l A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said the idea was “interesting” and had been passed on to the council’s animal team.

He said: “We have similar but not worse problems of fouling to most other places.”

Currently, dog owners in Worthing who don’t pick up their pet’s mess are risking a fixed penalty notice of £60, handed out by the town’s dog wardens.