A Hitchin resident has penned a fantastic open letter to those who let their pets foul in public places, after he discovered more than 50 bags of discarded dog poo while out on a walk.

Steve Barley, who has featured in the Comet before for his remarkable squirrel assault courses, sent us the letter after he and his wife were out on a countryside walk in Hitchin.

In a letter titled 'Don't bag it if you won't bin it!', Steve addresses "inconsiderate dog owners" - including one suspected culprit who has dumped 50 bags of poo.

Steve's letter begins: "Like many people, my wife and I love a good walk, as does our dog Millie. What we don’t love is litter, which is why every few weeks we take gloves, pickers and bags on our dog walk to play our small part in keeping the countryside as we wish to see it.

"Our normal litter pick results in four bags of rubbish and recyclables between us, but this week we were truly shocked at what we found along one short stretch of path – the same path we’d cleaned only a month or so before.

"I’m talking about the cut through between the Cheshire Home and the Cricket Club that opens out onto rolling fields west of Hitchin. Only 10 minutes into our walk, and we’d found over 50 dog poo bags thrown into the hedgerow – most of which were the same design suggesting a repeat offender. We only managed half the path before our large bin liner was simply too heavy to continue.

"One dog’s inconsiderate owner can produce 50 such bags in under two months, yet they’ll sit there for years – even biodegradable ones take a long time to decompose. That’s a s**t situation that no one wants.

"I could rant on about irresponsible dog owners, but that wouldn’t be fair, as the vast majority of us clean up after our dogs and leave the country paths as we found them. Also, I could tell the offenders the impact they’re having on the countryside and other people’s pleasure walking in it, but they’d probably poo-poo me.

"Instead, if you are one of those people who truly won’t take your waste with you, then here’s my advice of last resort – Don’t bag it if you won’t bin it! Flick it off the path/lane with a twig, it’s the same result for you except it’ll save you money on bags and save everyone else, including nature, from your plastic.

"Let’s hope the culprits read this and go one step better by simply binning it, perhaps turning into a new breed of person – less of a Shih Tzu and more of a retriever. No offence intended to our four-legged friends."