A street sweeper yesterday came out in support of a diaper law for carriage owners, saying having to scoop up horse droppings is making him sick.

Mr. Kenny Robinson said carriage owners' argument their horses are too highly strung to wear diapers -- as they do in the Bahamas and New York City -- is a "cop out''.

"They just don't want to have to put up with the smell,'' he said. "But why should we the sweepers be made to clean up after them when they own the horses and are making the money. They should be doing it themselves?'' Mr. Robinson, who has worked for Corporation of Hamilton for six years, was assigned two months ago to Front Street and Par-la-Ville Road.

"The smell of the droppings is unbearable,'' he said. "By the end of the day I don't feel too comfortable. I feel sick!'' Mr. Robinson said he has had to take up smoking again to disguise the stench of sun-baked horse faeces and urine.

And he claimed tourists come up to him nearly every day and, referring to the horse droppings, ask "what's that terrible smell?''.

Shop owners also complain and he said he advises them to write a letter to the newspaper or Corporation.

Mr. Robinson said he has complained to the Corporation but it maintains scooping up the droppings is part of his job.

His responsibility is to sweep up Par-la-Ville Road and Front Street from 7 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. After that time, nobody sweeps, he said, and the faeces accumulate through the night.

While sweeping during the day, by the time he gets to the end of a street, "another horse has come along and dropped one'', he said.

"It makes me vexed,'' he said. "I can't keep up with it.'' He added sweeping up the droppings takes up so much of his time he has little time left to sweep up the other debris on the street.

"It's getting out of hand and it's very much unhealthy,'' he said. "The solution is to attach a diaper to the horse.'' Noting the new dog laws which make it an offence for a dog to repeatedly soil someone's property, he said: "The same should apply to carriage owners.'' Corporation secretary Mr. Roger Sherratt disclosed this week that a law has been drafted making it mandatory for horses to wear diapers while pulling carriages in the city.

But he said the Corporation is wary about putting the law into effect because of "total opposition'' to diapers from horse and buggy owners.

He said the Corporation is looking further into the idea and seeing what alternatives exist.

He said it would be "very expensive'' to hire someone to sweep the streets at night.

PLP Sen. Trevor Woolridge has also claimed the droppings are a health hazard.

But Mr. Sherratt said the Corporation has never received any complaints about the droppings causing health problems.