From 6th April new regulations mean the Police will no longer be responsible for dealing with ‘out of office hours’ stray dogs and Luton’s Labour controlled Council says it has no statutory responsibility to arrange a collection service. But Liberal Democrat councillors are claiming the organisation they put in place last year when they ran the Council cost less than Labour is now spending and included evening and weekend cover.

“One of the first things Labour did when they took over was to increase spending on the Dog Wardens. We told them at the time that their re-organisation would leave Luton with a worse service at significantly higher cost – they laughed and denied it,” says Liberal Democrat leader, Councillor David Franks.

“Now we can see the mess they have created. The organisation we left in place provided a full weekend service with only an occasional Saturday or Sunday not covered because of staff holidays or sickness. Now it seems stray dogs are only allowed to be a nuisance during office hours – Monday to Friday, nine to five. Have they told the dogs about these new rules?”