A CARDIGAN junior football coach has spoken of his disgust after a large amount of dog fouling on the school field forced a training session to be halted.

Darren Barker has lost his patience over what he describes as a recurring problem which is endangering the health of young players every week.

“First of all I’d like to point out that walking your dog on a sports pitch isn't allowed,” he told the Tivy-Side.

“But the real issue here is the dangers such people are exposing our kids to.”

Darren, 42, head of Cardigan Juniors and a Cardigan Town committee member, said the problem had grown steadily worse.

“Over the last month or so of carrying out a few keep-fit sessions as well as training for the new season our coaches been picking up two, three or four piles of dog mess,” he revealed.

“But last week we actually had to halt training after picking up no fewer than 10 amounts of dog excrement in just one area of the main school rugby field.

“Dog faeces can pose a significant health risk to humans, particularly young kids as their immune systems are not fully developed.

“Kids are also more likely to come into contact with soil that contains dog faeces whilst playing football because of tackling, falling over and diving whilst in goal.

“All faeces contain bacteria that can cause stomach upsets, but the biggest risk is from toxocariasis – especially hazardous to small children as it can cause blindness.

“All this is really getting a bit too much now and I just hope it's not going to take serious repercussions for some members of the public to finally wake up and realise what unacceptable dangers they're putting our children in.”