Bridge repair costs have more than doubled because pigeon poo disguised rust.
Council officials struck a deal for the work on Conwy Road Bridge in 2016.
But the costs shot up by £844,000 to £1.53m after an inspection revealed rust on the structure was hidden by the birds’ droppings.
Conwy council chief executive Iwan Davies said it was not possible to identify the extent of the works but a councillor said it was “disappointing”.
Repairs for the two lane bridge, which takes traffic across the town’s estuary, were sent out to tender in 2016.
But a report by the council’s audit committee said the “considerable” extra work needed had not been found originally because of “access” problems.
“The additional works…significantly impacted the total cost of the works,” the report said.
Gele ward councillor Andrew Wood said: “I can’t believe we’ve not made more of an issue about this refurbishment, it’s plus £844,000.
“If the council tendered with all that information in the first place then it would have cost less. But we’re in a situation now where we have to carry on, so I’m disappointed.”
Mr Davies added: “It wasn’t an overspend as such, it was a re-calibration of what needed to be done.”
A solution’s been proposed to tackle a rising pigeon problem in part of Birmingham – turn over an abandoned house to them and allow for a controlled cull.
It comes after complaints to Birmingham City Council from people in Sparkhill about a huge flock of the birds.
Their arrival is being blamed on some locals enjoying feeding them or being reluctant to throw away excess food.
BBC
The city council has put up signs in the local park telling people not to feed the birds and now the founder of a local pest control firm has suggested relocating them.
Alan Ames, of the Ames Group, has suggested to the authority that they find a nearby derelict house or even an unused loft and open it as a pigeon coop.
He said it would allow a cull to take place in a safe and controlled way.
A woman who fed a bit of a sausage roll to a pigeon in the street has been fined £150.
Sally-Ann Fricker said she was out shopping in Bath with her daughter and her two young boys when a pigeon landed in front of them.
She broke off a corner of the snack and threw it to the bird which immediately flew off with the morsel.
Bath and North East Somerset Council said anyone caught littering faced a £150 fixed penalty fine.
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Pigeons and other birds have been found around the New Zealand capital of Wellington with Christmas decorations attached.
Originally By Lisa Jane Harding, CNN
(CNN) Injured and dead pigeons covered in tinsel and other decorations have been turning up in New Zealand, and animal rights campaigners are worried.
The Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said it received up to 30 calls in recent weeks reporting sightings of sparrows and dead pigeons with tinsel intentionally tied to their bodies.
“Many try to pry the foreign objects off their bodies with their beaks and feet, becoming further entangled and preventing them from eating, drinking and flying.
With others, the decorations are wrapped so tightly it completely cuts off their blood circulation,” SPCA spokeswoman Jessie Gilchrist told CNN.
“Those that do survive and arrive at our center are often in a very bad state, they are so malnourished and distressed that we have had to humanely euthanize them.”
The decorations can prevent the birds from eating, drinking and flying, leaving them to starve to death.
Since 2015, the charity said there has been over thirty cases of “decorated” birds found dead or with injuries severe enough to require euthanasia. Most of them being dead pigeons.
On Tuesday, SPCA officers were called to a house in Kilbirnie, a suburb of the capital Wellington, where they rescued several birds covered in decorations and paint.
The birds were in a distressed but otherwise healthy condition.
“One pigeon had quite bright red Christmas tinsel wrapped around its wings and then the top of its head had been painted with red paint as well as its wings had been tipped with red paint,” Gilchrist said.
While charges have yet to be laid against the owners of the house, Gilchrist said the case “remains an ongoing investigation.”
Sparrows and pigeons — which forage for food on the ground, in shrubs or shallow water — face a number of threats from predators, including foxes and racoons, as well as larger birds and snakes.
But humans are perhaps the biggest threat to the birds. In 2015, New Zealand recognized all animals, including birds, as “sentient” under law, extending protections and making it easier for charities like the SPCA to prosecute people for animal cruelty.
One stated purpose of the law was to “remove uncertainty around the ill-treatment of wild animals by targeting acts of wilful or reckless ill-treatment.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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Feeding pigeons swarm to pick up chips outside Wilson transit stop
CHICAGO (CBS) — Pigeons; they’re tolerated at best, hated at worst. Now, one Chicago alderman wants to make it a crime to feed pigeons.
CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov reports some people are calling the proposal by Ald. James Cappleman (46th) a bird-brained idea.
Uptown, downtown – pigeons are everywhere in Chicago.
Thursday morning, Barb Wambach was visiting the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza – where dozens of pigeons gather every day, keeping warm by the eternal flame – when she got an unpleasant surprise dropped on the boot-shaped mug she was holding.
“I moved my cup, and it felt like something plopped in it,” Wambach said. After a group of pigeons flew overhead, she found a splattering of bird droppings on her mug.
It’s that threat to everyday living, that fear of walking under a viaduct, the scourge of flying birds that Cappleman wants to eradicate.
He has introduced an ordinance that would significantly increase the penalties for feeding pigeons – making it a crime punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
Cappleman wasn’t available Thursday to discuss his proposal, but he told other aldermen he’s tired of encountering a scene from a Hitchcock movie every time he walks to the Wilson station on the CTA Red Line.
Scores – if not hundreds – of the birds perch at the station, just waiting to be fed. A huge flock of them swarmed down to the sidewalk Thursday afternoon to descend on some potato chip crumbs like hunters on prey.
“They’re a nuisance. They’re everywhere. You know, you could stand there waiting on the bus and they’re all over your feet,” Bobby Williams said outside the Wilson stop. “I think it should be illegal to feed them.”
It’s already a city code violation to feed pigeons – as signs at the Wilson stop indicate – punishable by a fine of up to $500. Cappleman’s proposal would double the maximum fine and add the possibility of up to six months in jail.
“They’re gonna arrest someone for feeding a bird?” Lily Norton said. “That’s kind of ridiculous.”
“It’s silly. He should be focusing on other problems,” Oliver Guyton said. “Like the budget and all that type of stuff that aldermen do.”
In May, Cappleman was assaulted by a woman in Uptown, after he started sweeping away the breadcrumbs she had spread on the ground for pigeons near Broadway and Wilson Avenue.
At the time, the alderman said the area is littered with breadcrumbs every day and has a serious pigeon problem. He has also said the breadcrumbs people leave for the birds could attract rats, too, so his staff regularly cleans up breadcrumbs left on the streets.
Orignal by – DANA KOZLOV (CBS)
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