‘AMBIGUOUS’ signs that appear to ban dogs in a popular dog walking spot have sparked confusion.

The signs, which went up last month, say there are now certain areas in Darwen where dogs are not allowed.

However, Darwen mayor Roy Davies said the signs do not make it clear if Sunnyhurst Woods are one of the areas.

He said: "I’ve been getting a lot of complaints about dogs being banned from Sunnyhurst woods because a very ambiguous sign has been put there.

“It’s a map showing every play area in the borough but nothing more.

“It says you have to go online to the council’s website to see where the new banned areas are.

“But because they’ve put it up in Sunnyhurst woods its suggests dogs aren’t allowed there either and people are finding it very confusing.

“The people on the council switchboards don’t seem to know much more either and are being quite unpleasant.

“People need clarification that they aren’t going to be fined just for walking their dogs in the woods.”

Tony Watson, head of environmental services at Blackburn with Darwen Council said the signs have been installed to display updated legislation.

He said: “The signs are part of a borough-wide consultation to update legislation currently in place.

“It covers four aspects, three of which are already enforced: dogs are currently banned from play areas, must be on a lead in cemeteries and owners are already required to remove their dog’s mess.

“The fourth would require owners to carry something to remove their dog waste and more information can be found on the Council website.

“Dogs are welcome in the council’s parks and can be exercised off their leads, providing they are not a nuisance or dangerous to others.”

This comes after 22 parking tickets were wrongly issued to motorists in newly-allocated residential permit holder parking areas last week.

It was discovered that, after installing the signs last month, Blackburn with Darwen Council had failed to complete the necessary paperwork to ensure the restrictions were enforceable and were forced to refund the wrongly issued penalties.

Cllr Davies said: “It’s happened before, they had this problem last week with the parking on Railway Road.

“It’s good to see the borough council cracking down on littering and that but it seems like they’re rushing to get these new rules in place and it’s confusing people.”