Hi-tech computer mapping is being used to combat a very basic problem in Marsden – dog poo.

Two friends fed up with dog mess on the streets and in parks took to the worldwide web to highlight village trouble spots.

Julia Meaton, who works in the Business School at the University of Huddersfield, and health sector manager Lisa Stringer, hope to shame owners into cleaning up after their pets and provide evidence of the problem to Kirklees Council.

Julia, who lives in Marsden, said she noticed on a village Facebook group how most complaints were about dog mess.

“It seemed every conversation on there would be hijacked by talk of dog poo so we decided to explore what technology could do to tackle the problem.”

Julia, who has two border collies Bob and Foxy, decided to use crowd mapping technology and set up a website where people can pinpoint doggie deposits on a map.

If they are so inclined they can also identify the type of poo from seven options from “hard lumps” to “entirely liquid”.

Julia said: “We are doing this as a bit of fun but there’s a serious element to it.

“Once we have engaged the community and highlighted the problem we can ask what do you want to do about it.

“Rather than wait for Kirklees to give us dog poo bins we thought we would raise awareness and shame dog owners who will know their actions will be logged.”

The website will be live for the whole of October and Julia and Lisa plan to run it again in six months’ time to see if there has been any improvement.

Anyone wanting to report dog poo sightings can fill in a form at poopatrolmarsden.crowdmap.com or e-mail a report to poopatrolmarsden@gmail.com

More information can be found on the group’s Facebook page Poo Patrol Marsden.