I AM writing in support of the article from Mr and Mrs Bill Hartley 'Don't forget your doggy bag', in the BEN (Tuesday, March 6).

For the council to remove the dog mess bin on Claypool field is inexcusable. Of all the times I have used the field to walk dogs and use the bin, I have never seen any other rubbish in it other than dog bags.

I also find it hard to believe that anyone put any other rubbish in it, as no one ever picks rubbish up these days.

So now Horwich residents, who pay higher rates than those in Bolton, are deprived of possibly the only dog bin they had.

Yet if you go into Heywood Park in Great Lever (newly refurbished with enclosed play areas and a football and basketball pitch), it has four dog bins, one to each entrance, and a further eight rubbish bins. And still there is dog mess on the grass between the bins.

There is also a vast amount of litter and other rubbish in the bushes in the park and surrounding areas, but that's another issue.

Shirley Sharples

Chorley New Road

Lostock