Litter bugs and dog owners who do not pick up their pets’ mess could be slapped with a £75 fine from this week.

Three dedicated officers have been tasked with enforcing the law and they started their patrols this week.

They will have the power to issue fixed penalties of £75 for littering and £50 for dog fouling as part of a strict approach to enforcement.

Andy Steele, press spokesman for Dover District Council, said: “The highly visible, uniformed presence will patrol between 6am and 9pm, seven days a week.

“They will also be deployed at other times in response to problem areas.”

It follows feedback from surveys and Neighbourhood Forums showing littering and dog fouling as key concerns for residents.

The salaried officers are not set targets for the number of fixed penalty notices they issue.

Mr Steele added that their aim is to work with the community to prevent offences.

DDC has also trained a number of its officers, together with Dover Neighbourhood Policing teams and Kent County Council Wardens on recording these offences while conducting their duties across the district.

Mr Steele added: "We would stress that dog fouling is a criminal offence, and it is the dog owner's responsibility to make sure they pick up after their pet. However, it is within the enforcement officers' job description to ‘carry out immediate cleansing of dog fouling’. They will therefore carry out a certain amount of removal of dog fouling. However that is not their primary role and they are not expected to clear up areas where there are large amounts of fouling. If problem areas are identified, the enforcement officers will report this to waste services to arrange for street cleaning to be carried out."