• Rubbish, waste and recycling
• Rubbish that's a risk to health
• Drains and Sewers
• Pest Control
• Streetscene
• Landscape and Countryside
• Climate Change
• Dog warden service
  • Stray dogs
• Community Development Team
• Unauthorised encampments
• Private water supplies
• Noise
• Bonfires and smoke

Stray dogs

If your dog is missing, or if you happen to contain a stray dog, please contact the council and we will notify the dog warden. If you require the service out of office hours, please ring 0845 241 7253.

The dog warden service is provided via Serco, and contracted to a company called Animal Wardens.

If we find your dog

The charges for the return of each stray dog are:

• Statutory fee of £25 per dog
• Admin fee of £7.75 per dog
• Kennelling fee (per calendar day) of £13.25 (once a dog has been taken to the kennels, the fee will apply per day whether it has stayed overnight or not).

There is an optional extra fee for delivering a dog home from the kennels of £42.00. Alternatively, you may collect your dog free of charge by prior arrangement.

All fees must be paid before a dog is released.  Each day they are in kennels will incur additional charges.

For the safety of their staff, Animal Wardens will not accept cash after 9pm. If you want to pay cash and reclaim your dog in the evening, this must be before 9pm. Card payments and the return of dogs can take place until 11pm.

Micro-chipped dogs

All efforts will be made to reunite micro-chipped dogs or dogs wearing collars with tags (owners details must be up-to-date and accurate) with their owners, before being taken to the kennels. 

• If this is possible, the dog will be returned free of charge. 
• If this is not possible, then the owner will be charged for fees incurred; administration and kennelling (if it was needed). The collection/return fee will be waived.

Should this situation persist, the full charges will apply even if the dog is correctly chipped/has collar and tag, from the third occurrence onwards. If the information on the collar/micro-chip is not current, then the full charges will apply.

If you find a stray dog

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 Section 150 requires the finder of a stray dog to:

• return the dog to its owner, or;
• contact the local authority for the area in which the dog was found.

If the finder fails to take one of these courses of action he will have committed an offence and would be liable, upon conviction, to a fine.

If the finder requests to keep the dog, he must supply the officer with his contact details and details of the dog. The officer is required to keep a record of these details. Regulations require that the officer makes appropriate enquiries to ascertain that the finder is a suitable person to keep the dog.

The finder must then be informed verbally and in writing that he is obliged to keep the dog (if unclaimed by the owner) for a month and that failure to comply with that obligation is a criminal offence.