POLICE called after a dog fight broke out on a busy pavement took nearly an hour to respond, a councillor has claimed – despite the police station being just over 100 metres away.

The incident, which happened outside Costa, on Musselburgh High Street, was witnessed by dozens of people, including Councillor Fraser McAllister, who was at an SNP stall when it happened last month.

Mr McAllister said that a number of people called the police, with at least one person going to the nearby station during the incident; however, he said when a police van was spotted coming towards them, it did not stop.

Speaking about the incident at a meeting of East Lothian Council’s police, fire and community safety scrutiny committee last week, Mr McAllister said that police were called but members of the public had to separate the dogs.

He said: “I was at the SNP stall when I saw a Staffie had a small dog’s head in its mouth. Lots of people were using phones to call the police and take photos; at least one person went to the station.

“At least one hour passed before somebody saw a van coming, but it passed.”

Mr McAllister made his claims to Chief Inspector Matt Paden, local area commander, at the committee meeting last Tuesday, in Haddington Town House.

He said the Staffie owner arrived on the scene and was apologetic but the dogs had to be separated “by violence”.

Mr McAllister added: “I cannot over-emphasise how distressing the incident was for scores of people.”

Police Scotland later said that the initial call had been passed to East Lothian Council’s dog warden as it was a ‘dog-on-dog’ attack; however, reports a short time later that a man had been bitten during the incident led to them becoming involved.

East Lothian Council said that the dog wardens team was informed of the incident on November 29 – three days after it happened.

A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “We received two separate reports from the public at 12.33pm on November 26, relating to a dog-on-dog attack on Musselburgh High Street.

“As is our procedure for calls of this nature, local officers informed the East Lothian Council Dog Warden to progress the matter accordingly. A further call was then received just after 1pm, where it was disclosed that a male had been bitten on the hand by one of the dogs involved, and police attended at the scene within 20 minutes.”

A council spokesperson confirmed the dog owner had been traced. They said: “Appropriate action was taken against the dog owner on December 1 by one of the council’s dog wardens under the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010.”