Complaint about incorrect use of there led to dog fouling campaigner being accused of fly posting

A pensioner's campaign against dog fouling has been stopped in its tracks because of a spelling mistake on posters warning owners to clean up after their pets.

65-year-old Janet Bellis from Meir in Stoke took direct action by putting up home-made posters after becoming sick of dog fouling near her home. But Janet was stunned when Stoke-on-Trent City Council took the signs down and accused her of fly-posting.



The council was alerted to the posters after a resident complained about the incorrect use of ‘there’ in the wording. The offending sentence was taken from an email written to the residents by a council officer and then transferred onto the poster.

Janet said: “I couldn’t believe it when I was told about the spelling mistake. I thought, ‘this is absolutely crazy’. These are words sent to us by the council.”