JUST one badly behaved dog owner has been prosecuted and one other fined this year despite hundreds of investigations and patrols.

One owner was prosecuted and fined £1,400 in Brighton and Hove during 2015 with another was given a penalty notice of £80 in 2015.

The lack of prosecutions comes despite more than 200 dog fouling investigations and warnings and almost 450 patrols in one year.

Conservative Councillor Tony Janio called on the council to use DNA profiling to help tackle the issue, which he said was “far from a joke” for residents.

He said use of the technology in other European cities had reduced incidents by 80 per cent and had also helped to reduce the number of abandoned pets and helped to identify dogs that had carried out attacks.

Councillor Gill Mitchell, chairwoman of the environment, transport and sustainability committee, told the full council meeting last night that she would meet with Coun Janio and the company behind the technology to discuss its potential use in the city.

She also said that a trial had been launched with the Round Hill Society, who had bought stencils to mark out where dog owners had left behind faeces on pavements with short-life paint supplied by the local authority.

The idea was first trialled in the Shetland Islands with variations on the theme also trialled in Bognor and Worthing in recent years.

She added that a new agreement with a private enforcement company, agreed last month and set to launch in the new year, to tackle flytipping, fly-posting, graffiti and littering could be extended to dog fouling.

The council meeting heard in response to Coun Janio’s question that there had had been 220 dog fouling investigations and warnings in 2014 as well as 448 patrols of known problem areas including Kemp Town, Hangleton and Ladies Mile nature reserve.

Coun Mitchell said the animal welfare was proactive but that offences were “difficult to prove or enforce”.

Coun Janio said that the problem of dog fouling was on the rise and had got so bad that some sports and social events had been threatened with cancellation.

He added: “That is a very long way of saying there have been a lot of complaints but only one prosecution.”