A Whitstable councillor wants to fine dog walkers who leave home without poo bags – regardless of whether their pet makes a mess or not.

Cllr Ashley Clark (Con) hopes Canterbury City Council will introduce the fines which could see owners given £100 on-the-spot penalties if they are stopped and found to be without a poo bag.

The extra power for enforcement officers would come in the form of a Public Space Protection Order.

Cllr Clark said: “If you haven’t got a bag, you can be fined for it.

“Quite frankly what happens is you get people who go out with their dogs and if the dog goes it doesn’t get cleared up.

“By using this legislation, we put out a powerful message to the people that we can do something about it with the end result that we hopefully don’t end up with little roundabouts all over the place.

“We have got the powers and we can do something about it.”

Daventry District Council is believed to be the first authority to bring in the measure when it was approved earlier this year.

The power will take effect in Northamptonshire on December 1 but fines will not be levied until 2016.

Cllr Clark, who outlined his plans at a recent Whitstable Area Member Panel meeting, added: “They are doing it in Daventry and we need to look and see if what they are doing has been successful.

“It’s a way forward and does provide potentially some kind of solution.

“I was always told not to look for problems and always look for solutions.”

Mike Warren, councillor for health issues at Daventry District Council, said the idea was unanimously approved.

He said: “We are hoping it is going to be successful because obviously it’s a problem everywhere.

“We are the first council and that’s why we suddenly got such a lot of media interest in it.

“The basic point is: we are asking people to carry more bags with them.

“I think it’s a very positive move.”

Canterbury City Council spokesman Rob Davies said the authority was looking into the idea.

He said: “It’s an interesting idea.

“We’ll speak to Daventry about how the scheme works and how successful it is and consider whether it’s an approach we want to take here.”