POLICE community support officers should crack down on fly-tipping, littering and dog fouling across Wrexham, leading councillors have said.

During 2008/09, Wrexham Council officers issued 465 fines for such offences while over the same period police community support officers (PCSOs) in the county handed out three.

Members of the authority’s executive board met at the Guildhall to approve new enforcement procedures to be introduced by the council’s Streetscene service, which is responsible for maintenance of roads and public spaces.

But there was criticism from some that the amount of fines handed out to members of the public by PCSOs was far too low.

The proceeds from fixed penalty notices issued by officers for such minor offences are returned to the council.

Cllr Mark Pritchard said: “I work very closely with my PCSO and the directive from above is to not give tickets for dog fouling or dropping litter.”

Council leader Aled Roberts said: “Currently there’s a PCSO service level agreement with the council that means they don’t need to enforce (such offences).”

The service level agreement agreed by the council and police, which does not give PCSOs any set targets for the number of fines issued, is to continue in 2010/11, the authority says.

Deputy council leader Cllr Bob Dutton said: “This agreement with the PCSOs is a problem we know we have got to deal with.

“From our point of view it’s been made clear we may not have funding to continue in the same situation in the future, so we need a performance we can accept from our PCSOs.”