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After growing frustrated with all the dog poo covering their sports playing fields, an 11-year-old boy and his little brother have been installing dog-poo bag dispensers all over Cheltenham.

Oliver and Samuel, seven, have installed 15 home-made dog poo bag dispensers recycled from old juice bottles and are looking to expand.

They are attached with cable ties to lampposts by public bins.

Oliver starts our interview by posing the question: “If you go walk your dogs, would you like to go for a normal walk and just start stepping in poo on the floor and risk getting your shoes dirty or would you be happy just to get a poo bag and pick it up and put it in the bag?”

Before I can answer, he continues: “Especially if you’re just walking on a street or just anywhere, you don’t really want to be standing in dog poo.

(Image: Anna Lythgoe)

“So we’re just trying to make it clear that you can go and pick up some poo and put it in the bin so it doesn’t go around everywhere.

“We just want to make it so that all parks around are clean.”

The boys’ clean-up project stemmed from the fact that they are avid football players and dog owners.

The dog mess became a real problem for the Oliver in particular when he was playing football on the sports fields.

Oliver said: “If you’re playing football or something on a big sports field and you’re running with the ball, you don’t want to accidentally skid on the floor and be sliding in poo everywhere.

“You want to have a clean sports field!

“I have seen that happen a couple of times and I feel kind of sorry for them, they’ve got the ball and they’ve slid over and it’s not really their fault.

“We wanted to help them so they don’t slip over and they don’t mess up their sports because of other people leaving their poo on the floor.”

(Image: Anna Lythgoe)

It all began on one fateful day when walking with their father Daniel and their own dog – Barney, a Cockapoo - the dog excreted all over the public ground, leaving a dirty mess.

They stuck their hands in their pocket to retrieve the poo bags, only they realised that they must have forgotten to pack them as they couldn’t find them anywhere.

They were faced with the horrifying realisation that they would have to leave the poo and continue on their walk.

Every step of the way, they felt awful.

(Image: Anna Lythgoe)

The guilt wasn’t wearing off, they had to do something about it.

As fast they could, they went trawling for leaves that were big enough to fold over the poo but they found nothing suitable.

Eventually, they found a fellow dog owner who had a bag and went back to clean up Barney’s mess.

This happened on more than one occasion and they realised that this was a common problem for other dog owners.

What’s more, Oliver kept seeing dog poo building up everywhere – “not even just parks, sports fields, alleyways and pavements” – and he realised that something had to be done and the responsibility fell on him.

He and his family, based in the Reddings, went on the internet to look for some ideas for how to deal with the problem.

(Image: Anna Lythgoe)

That’s when they found out that they could make their own dog poo dispensers from recycled bottles.

With his seven-year-old brother, they set about re-engineering old juice bottles.

Their father drilled in holes to the back and affixed cable ties.

The then created helpful labels for the bottles that asks the question: “Did you forget your poo bags?”

It then politely continues: “Please help to keep our town poo free by using a bag and clearing up your dog’s poo.

“Anytime you are passing, please put a spare in for others that may forget.

“Always clean up after your pet and dispose of the bag responsibly in a bin or take it home with you.

(Image: Anna Lythgoe)

“Let’s keep our town clean and tidy.”

The boys have put fifteen of these up now.

“We’re expanding!” said Oliver in an excited tone – speaking about they have covered the area surrounding where he lives and now have their eyes on dominating every playing field in Cheltenham with helpful dispensers.

He added: “We’ve put them up in Montpelier now.”

However, the ambitious primary school pupil said that for his project to become more successful he needs other dog owners to help out.

“First everyone needs to make sure that they can look after their dogs,” he said. “They should also us make more stuff. They could make dog poo dispensers and put them around.”

(Image: Oliver, Clean Dogs Cheltenham)

Oliver hastens to add that the bags should be biodegradable.

“We think the environment is something that we need to consider because one day we don’t want everyone’s litter around – then the world would just be a big mess with litter everywhere.”

His father added that there was already too much plastic in the world.

Oliver agrees and said: “Let’s say you’re on a big walk in a wood, there may not be bins around the place.

“You could accidentally drop it somewhere when you’re walking so if you have a degradable bag, it wouldn’t matter as much.”

Oliver and his family have very recently set up a Facebook page called Clean Dogs Cheltenham and he implores everyone to join the cause and save our parks from the scourge of dog poo.