Controversial plans to ban dogs from 100 parks and spaces in Wirral were branded an “almighty c*ck up” by humiliated councillors as they debated new solutions to crack down on dog fouling.

Elected members tore into the authority’s “draconian” proposals to implement a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) governing where people could walk their dogs, which attracted widespread public backlash.

Members of the council’s Environmental Committee said it was an “emotive” subject that caused “furore” amongst local residents – thousands of whom signed a petition against the plans.

Tearing into the PSPO at the meeting last night, chairman of the committee Chris Blakeley, said: “The way this was handled last year, we immediately put peoples backs up, we created a huge opposition.

“One of the biggest issues across the borough that people tell us repeatedly, is dog fouling. I have been a local councillor for 19 years, I get many complaints about dog fouling. I don’t get any complaints about dogs being a nuisance.

“We have to recognise the vast majority of dog owners in Wirral are responsible. We don’t need to take a sledge hammer to crack a nut, we don’t need to punish the innocent to penalise the guilty .”

Cllr Blakeley’s comments followed a report from Environment Officer Mike Cockburn, who said new proposals would be presented to the council in Autumn, once stakeholders and interested groups had been consulted.

He said the new approach would focus on driving behaviour change, but did not rule out dog control measures again.

This did not amuse councillors, who feared a repeat outcome of the original plans, which were also subject to public consultation.

Conservative Councillor David Burgess Joyce said: “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always had. We just need to visit this in a different way, because this was an almighty cock up. I think we need to take the public with us this time, as opposed to being draconian”.

He was not the only one left less than impressed with that idea, with others stressing the importance of learning lessons from the original PSPO proposals.

And Labour Councillor Christina Muspratt, whose then ruling group brought in the controversial plan, said: “I was totally opposed to the way it was done before. I do feel we have to have some areas which are dog free and I don’t think some owners would argue with that. I am concerned that all we are doing is going back to the people who caused a furore last time because of what appeared to be draconian measures.

“We want to try and get things through and we are going to have to start doing things differently about how we deal with people. As a dog owner it annoyed me so I am sure it annoyed a lot of people as well. ”

After a lengthy discussion last night , councillors on the committee agreed unanimously to scrap the PSPO to ban dogs.

Cllr Blakeley, who put forward that recommendation, said it wasn’t acceptable to bring it back with ” a few tweaks” and instead proposed to withdraw it.

Councillors said they would engage with user groups before deciding any way forward, and said the issue would be brought back as a one item agenda in the future.