AN UNSAVOURY incident at a bus shelter in Salcombe left the town council with a warning of enforcement action being taken against them - after they contacted South Hams Council for assistance.

The town council received a report of human excrement in the bus shelter at Beadon Cross from a member of the public on the morning of Sunday, January 31.

Salcombe Town Council contacted Environmental Health at South Hams Council to explain they had neither the equipment, nor the staff to clear the offending item up.

They eventually received a response explaining the town council’s obligations: ‘As a landowner, it is their responsibility to maintain their land so it does not pose a risk to users of the site that they allow/encourage to use it.

‘In Environmental Health the only powers we have would be to take action against Salcombe Town Council to require removal of the noxious matter, I am unsure what support we could provide in relation to the cleansing/removal of the matter.’

Before receiving this response, the town council’s project officer had been up to the bus shelter and removed the human excrement with a shovel and left a small pile of sand covering the residue.

In a second email, the project officer explained to the district council’s mobile locality officer: ‘Salcombe Town Council were looking for assistance under environmental health. As there was no immediate response on this, who would we turn to in future if another human excrement, used needles or other environmental issue was to happen?

‘This bus shelter is used daily by about 50 school children waiting for their school or scheduled bus to Kingsbridge Community College - some of who could have been affected by this incident.’

The issue was raised in last week’s full council meeting, and town mayor Cllr Mike Fice explained this week: ‘We were quite aware it was our responsibility - we were just asking for assistance - which we were quite happy to pay for.

‘All we had was the reply from Environmental Health with threats of prosecution - we’ve heard nothing else. Our project officer cleaned it up the best he could, and then we managed to get the rest cleaned up with a pressure washer.’