Harrow residents may have heard Deputy Mayor for Policing Kit Malthouse’s recent call for a strengthening of the law regarding dangerous dogs.

Having spent the past three-and-a half years as the portfolio holder for environment and community safety at Harrow Council, as well as sitting on the London Council’s crime and public protection forum, I have a great deal of experience with dealing with cases involving dangerous and weapons dogs. And I strongly believe that Harrow residents should back the Deputy Mayor’s call for action.

While some may think that talk of dangerous dogs is alarmist or scaremongering, the statistics speak for themselves.

The problem is nationwide. In the past couple of weeks alone, we have heard of attacks on two ten-year-old girls in Dundee and Kilmarnock.

And in London every borough has a story to tell. In Harrow, one of the first major stories of the year was that of a man needing 80 stitches in his face after he was set upon while out walking his dog.

The deputy mayor has proposed an increase in the penalty for owning a banned breed — to bring it in line with carrying an offensive weapon — as well changing the law that currently allows well-behaved banned breeds to remain with their owners.

In addition, he rightly highlights the problem of so-called ‘weapons dogs’.

In Harrow, we discovered dozens of our children’s swing seats, as well as trees in parks, had been damaged by dog bites. This was not the result of random gnashing, but rather the owners of weapons dogs encouraging their animals to clamp their teeth onto the seats and branches and swing on them — strengthening their jaw muscles.

In response, we had the seats remade containing a foul-tasting chemical, but this shows what people are prepared to do to make their weapons dogs more dangerous.

We also recognised that, since it is often housing estates that are plagued by these dogs, people keeping dogs for antisocial purposes should not be granted leases for council property.

Before our administration lost power in May, we proposed referring possible dangerous dogs from estates to the police and the RSPCA for independent assessments and expert advice — allowing us to act accordingly on their recommendations.

Talking about dangerous dogs isn’t alarmist, but rather the recognition of a serious and worsening problem and I therefore strongly encourage Harrow residents to sign the petition on the GLA website at www.london.gov.uk/dangerous-dogs-petition and make their views heard.

Councillor Susan Hall, leader of Harrow Council Conservative Group