Police Sgt. Roseanda Jones confirmed yesterday Police were investigating a complaint of a carriage driver operating a horse without a diaper on Front Street on May 9.

"Charges are pending,'' she told The Royal Gazette .

The man would be the first carriage driver charged since a Corporation of Hamilton ordinance requiring horse diapers took effect on May 1.

Mr. Roger Sherratt, secretary of the Corporation of Hamilton, said a driver was seen in Hamilton "on at least three or four occasions'' without diapers on his horses.

After a registered letter from the Corporation had no effect, "the Police did eventually stop him and report him for not using a diaper.'' Since then, the driver had been seen with diapers on his horses, he said.

Mr. Sherratt said he understood the driver, whom he did not identify, would be sent a summons to attend Magistrates' Court.

The Corporation secretary said the law was a great success. "We've had carriage drivers telling us that it's gone far better than they ever thought it would,'' he said.

"We've had literally no complaints about horse droppings on the street. We were for a while being inundated with calls about how clean the streets were.'' Much of the controversy over the law died down once it took effect and people realised that horses were not in fact being forced to wear diapers, he said.

Although the devices are called diapers, they are actually chutes that are positioned behind the horse to catch droppings as they fall.

"A lot of people have asked what all the fuss was about,'' he said. "When they realise we're not talking about diapers at all, but a bag, they seem very sensible.'' Some carriage drivers complained their horses would not tolerate the diapers, but no problems had been reported, Mr. Sherratt said.

While about 95 percent of the roughly 30 carriage drivers were using proper devices to catch the horse droppings, a problem remained. Some drivers were using plastic shopping bags or other home-made devices that were not working, he said.

"We now need the drivers to use a proper device that will actually catch the droppings,'' he said.

The Corporation wrote a letter to one driver saying the device being used was not working, but has not yet asked Police to issue summonses in such cases.

"We wanted to give the carriage drivers an opportunity to test out different devices,'' Mr. Sherratt said.

Eventually, he expected there would be a schedule of approved horse diapers and new ones would be inspected by the Corporation to make sure they were up to snuff.

Most drivers were disposing of the horse droppings in a concrete receptacle the Corporation provided on Front Street. Others were emptying the diapers at home.

"We even heard that someone was using a plastic trash liner and giving it away as fertiliser.''