WHEN are some of the dog owners and walkers who use the Belmont Scrambles Nature Reserve in Durham going to stop abusing the natural beauty we are lucky to have by allowing their dogs to defecate all over and not pick up after them?

This is an offence and owners can be fined up to £1,000, as well as being totally anti-social!

As an older person with walking issues, I only ever walk in the area behind Cheveley Walk and Coniston Close, which is horrific. Today, I counted 32 piles of faeces in an area no larger than 300 square metres.

I regularly see people with three or four dogs all off-lead, with the dogs racing all over.

Volunteers are working so hard to keep the place as it should be, but some people have no respect for their fellow humans.

I'd like to state that this is not teenagers, this is adults! I have been verbally abused on several occasions (by both men and women) for asking them to pick up after their dogs, and would never repeat some of the language used against me.

Please, let us all enjoy the beautiful area we have on our doorstep, without having to watch every step we take!

Anne Grendale, Belmont, Durham