Councils team up to tackle stray horses

Two Black Country councils are joining forces to tackle problems with stray horses wandering the streets and causing havoc for residents, it has been revealed.

Managers at Walsall and Dudley are to hold talks after a barrage of complaints about animals galloping on estate roads, holding up traffic, leaving manure in roads and gardens, and causing holes in playing fields.

No-one has so far been able to track down the owners. Walsall Council executive director for neighbourhood services Jamie Morris said the authority had been discussing the problem with police.

"We have also been working to clear up the mess created by the horses," he said.

"We have been trying to track down the owners and have been in discussions with neighbouring local authorities to learn from their experiences."

Parks department staff pegged enforcement notices to fencing at Great Bridge Road playing fields in Moxley after a group of up to six horses grazed at the football pitches. Moxley Rangers Football Club Under-15s match had to be cancelled on Sunday due to the holes left by the hooves.

The animals have been spotted roaming residential streets in Charnwood Close and Castle View Road, Moxley, in the Walsall borough, and over the Sandwell border in Princes End, Tipton.

In Dudley, horses trampled over gardens and wandered in front of cars on the Russells Hall Estate last week. Horses were also causing a nuisance in Wellington Road but were rounded up by two passers-by.

Phil Parker, Dudley Council spokesman, said: "Colleagues in Walsall contacted us following recent incidents to establish what procedures we use in Dudley in relation to the issue of stray horses.

"We work closely with an enforcement agency as well as police and the RSPCA to tackle the problems of horses grazing illegally on public land."

Sandwell Council said it had received no complaints of strays but had an ongoing problem with horses being tethered illegally.