Health and Safety - Pigeons

johnsmith3

Hi everyone,
my neighbour has a big shed of pigeons next door. I don't know if those are racing pigeons, or he is just eating them but there is a problem there.

My back yard is full of bird droppings and hundreds of flies. I contacted the respective environmental health department, but they told me they can't do anything. I could only complain about the welfare of the birds (how about my family's welfare?). There are health and safety issues arising from pigeon droppings (just google pigeon droppings), not to mention that I can't open any window since my house fills with flies.

Could anyone offer any advice on that issue? Summer is coming and it is only going to get worse again.

Thank you.
js

brian_t

You can buy plastic hawk bird scarers.

I can't see why you could have one in your own garden.

His pigeons might fly away in a different direction.

Airports use real ones to keep birds away.

kravmaga

Is is a pigeon loft or coop.

Id say your neighbour needs planning permission for either structure.

Environmental Health Officer in your local council should be informed as pigeon dropping do carry diseases as do pigeons themselves.

Failing all of the above buy some Ferrets, they like all sorts

http://www.irishfowl.com/talk/topic-27293.html?c=8

Samuel T. Cogley

johnsmith3 wrote: »

my neighbour has a big shed of pigeons next door. I don't know if those are racing pigeons, or he is just eating them but there is a problem there.

Sorry absolutely no advice for you but that made me chuckle.

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Have you tried speaking to your neighbour about this?

Doctors room ghost

kravmaga wrote: »

Is is a pigeon loft or coop.

Id say your neighbour needs planning permission for either structure.

Environmental Health Officer in your local council should be informed as pigeon dropping do carry diseases as do pigeons themselves.

Failing all of the above buy some Ferrets, they like all sorts

http://www.irishfowl.com/talk/topic-27293.html?c=8

You definitely don’t need planning permission for a pigeon loft if it’s a temporary timber structure.
The pigeons are either racers tumblers or rollers.google image them op and you will figure out which they are.
If you see the neighbor bringing them in the car in boxes regular they are racers in training

johnsmith3

Thank you guys for your replies.

I don't think he needs a planning permission for that. Another guy has built an extension to his house, which is much bigger and it falls under the 2001 Act, so he didn't need a permission.

I have contacted the Environmental Office in the local city council. I don't know if they were trying to pass the problem on to someone else, but they said that it is not illegal to have pigeons in the back yard. I told him about the diseases coming from the droppings, but he said that I could only complain regarding the "welfare of the birds". He told me that on the phone. I might try and send an email to get his answer back in writing.

The neighbour is not someone who would engage in any conversation.

In the meantime, on top of the weather, we need a forecast for the flies and the droppings, before we put the clothes out to dry, or even to get out to get some fresh air...

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You cant be the only neighbour affected, the birds are not targeting their droppings on your garden exclusively.

Have you tried talking to other affected neighbours? Perhaps a group of you could approach either the neighbour himself or the council together?

Alun

I'd have thought that pigeon droppings would be a potential problem if they were diseased, as many feral pigeons would be, but if these are homing pigeons and are well looked after, surely there should be no issue.

GBX

Even if you get some sort of reply from the council, how would the OP prove that the droppings did come from the neighbours pigeons and not from wild birds? Obviously the likelihood is that they did but the neighbour could argue it may not have been his birds that did it.

johnsmith3

johnsmith3 wrote: »

I don't think he needs a planning permission for that. Another guy has built an extension to his house, which is much bigger and it falls under the 2001 Act, so he didn't need a permission.

Sheds and extensions are different classes, an extension can be up to 40sqm, a shed up to 25sqm.

More importantly for this case, a shed cannot be used to house animals without planning permission. If he's had it in excess of 7 years it will be statute barred, any less and he'll be made seek retention permission.

Doctors room ghost

It’s a myth that pigeons sh1te everywhere.a pigeon has to actually stop flying and stand still in order to deficate.
So unless they are flying over to the neighbors property and landing on roofs etc it can’t be them and if they are landing and causing a mess it would be easy to scare them off.
Google that op.its a myth that a pigeon is a sky bomber.thats why statues and other places pigeons roost are normally dirty but they can’t poop when they fly

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Can you put up some photos of the issue?

Maybe its not pigeon poop?

RoamingDoc

johnsmith3 wrote: »

I have contacted the Environmental Office in the local city council. I don't know if they were trying to pass the problem on to someone else, but they said that it is not illegal to have pigeons in the back yard. I told him about the diseases coming from the droppings, but he said that I could only complain regarding the "welfare of the birds". He told me that on the phone. I might try and send an email to get his answer back in writing.

Talk to your local environmental health office. They're a part of the HSE.

johnsmith3

Pigeons stand on my roof and they're using it as vantage point looking at their shed, waiting for their master to feed them. When they stand there, they... deliver their droppings which end up in my back yard (decking). They are not dropping s@ bombs.

They are not well looked after, the shed is awfully dirty inside (I have seen that myself).

Major problem are also the flies who nest in the shed, living on the pigeons' droppings. There are hundreds of them. Literally.

Environmental health office has been contacted (see my first post). They don't give a pigeon's dropping. "It is legal".

I keep on wondering about the other neighbours as well (actually the house on the other side of his yard). You're right, I probably need to ask them.

I also got an expert on pigeons, from a company that deals with those kind of problems. He advised to install spikes on my roof, but that won't stop the flies.

Credit Checker Moose

Ask a solicitor for his opinion?

bobbyss

brian_t wrote:

You can buy plastic hawk bird scarers.

That might scare the sh1t out of them.

johnsmith3

Yakov P. Golyadkin wrote: »

Sheds and extensions are different classes, an extension can be up to 40sqm, a shed up to 25sqm.

More importantly for this case, a shed cannot be used to house animals without planning permission. If he's had it in excess of 7 years it will be statute barred, any less and he'll be made seek retention permission.

There might be a hope there. Thank you.

Rmgblue

bobbyss wrote: »

That might scare the sh1t out of them.

You’re not getting the credit you deserve for this comment!

NUTLEY BOY

Two thoughts.

It is most certainly a potential public health issue as far as human beings are concerned.
Pigeons were not nicknamed "rats with wings" for nothing.:rolleyes:
HSE or it's agents are just being lazy and need to be pressed to act.
You don't have to wait for someone to fall ill before officialdom acts.

Secondly, subject to adequate evidence being collected, this looks like a classical tort of nuisance type case.
Photographic evidence collected over time would help.