A LUDLOW man says that he would not be able to allow young children to play on his lawn because of cat mess.

It is usually dogs that get bad publicity when their owners do not clean up after them but David Trotter, who lives in the town centre, says that it is felines that are using his lawn as a public convenience.

"I like cats. We have had several cats over the years. Presently, we do not have a cat or a dog," said Mr Trotter.

"However all our neighbours appear to have cats.

"I estimate about 12 cats roam through our garden on a regular basis and all of them use our lawn as their toilet. Every day I have to clear up some cat poo and recently there were four smelly offerings for me to deal with. With this situation I could not allow children to play on our grass.

“Cats are clean house trainable animals. If you own a cat you should provide it with a clean litter tray that it can access at any time.”