Shugborough tackles nuisance pets

Pooches will be snapped and provided with their very own ID cards complete with name and picture, under the plan which is the brain-child of estate general manager Richard Kemp.

The cards are being introduced in a bid to tackle anti-social animals, who have been misbehaving on the land train, introduced to carry visitors from the new estate car park to the mansion house.

Although there will be no charge for the passes, it is hoped they will encourage owners to be more responsible, if they know their dog could potentially be named and shamed and banned from the train.

Mr Kemp said: "This is nothing more than a lateral solution to a real problem. There are some people who want to bring their dogs on to the estate, but like to walk to the house and ride back or vice versa.

"However, at one point I had to ban dogs from the train completely as some were misbehaving, and this really upset some of our visitors, who had dogs that were impeccably behaved.

"There were one or two irresponsible owners who were spoiling things for everyone, so I came up with the idea of introducing the passes.

"Owners will show the passes along with their own, but if there is any problem caused by their dogs we will ban them from the train. It might sound harsh, but we have a responsibility to all our customers.

"We did consider charging for the passes, but thought we should include the train ride as part of the service to all our visitors."

The introduction of the land train was a controversial move by the management at the estate. It was introduced after the layout was changed.

Now visitors must park away from the historic mansion house and ride to the estate on the train - originally a children's attraction. Frequent visitors said the new layout made it difficult to access the house and gardens, particularly for those with mobility problems and local councillors accused the management of "turning its back" on local people.

A number of people complained after a shake-up which not only saw the car park moved but saw admission prices increased and charges introduced to visitors walking in the grounds. Admission charges will rise again next March to £19.50 for adults.