A dog owner in a council house could face eviction after she was fined more than £2,000 for letting her pets cover the backyard with excrement.

Southend Council chiefs revealed they took the woman to court because the level of dog dirt "threatened the health of people living nearby".

Southend Magistrates Court fined the Leigh woman a total of £2,500 including costs for causing a statutory nuisance under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act.

However, housing and environmental chiefs have refused to reveal who the woman is because they are considering taking "further action".

The ultimate sanction available to housing chiefs is to evict a tenant from their council home.

A council spokesman said: "Southend Council won a court case against a woman who allowed her dogs to foul in her back garden to an excessive level that threatened the health of people nearby.

"When environmental health officers visited the house in Leigh to investigate the situation, they found an excessive accumulation of dog faeces and urine in the back yard that was prejudicial to health.

"A notice was served demanding immediate cleansing of the yard but on three further visits this had not occurred."

Director of housing and environmental services Stephen Lumley said: "The woman concerned is a council tenant and as the landlord we are considering action against the tenancy.

"While we are considering that action, it would be inappropriate to release any details about the individual concerned.

"We rarely have to go to court but we are not prepared to let situations such as this continue - especially when they show an obvious danger to people's health and well-being."

Labour St Luke's councillor Reg Copley, chairman of the housing and environmental services committee, said: "This court action demonstrates the council is determined to ensure that its tenants and the residents of Southend generally behave in appropriate ways and do not become a nuisance to those around them."

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