Business group targets city centre pigeons

By [gstamford]

They steal your chips, leave thousands of droppings around Lincoln centre and get under your feet when you're trying to do your shopping.

But in the new year pigeon numbers could be cut down to a manageable level in Lincoln as the city's Business Improvement Group launches a plan to reduce the population.

But BIG have admitted that nothing has been done to develop the plan since they won a ballot to retain their management of the city centre back in October.

The group have a £6 million masterplan to develop and improve the centre of Lincoln.

Park-and-ride schemes, a blitz on street drinking and a crackdown on food left out for pigeons were included in the manifesto drawn up by the organisation.

Matt Corrigan, chief executive of the group, said the group would be working on a more solid plan in the new year.

"Controlling pigeons in the city does feature in our plans for next year," he said. "We will be working on a new leaflet and information. We will also be renewing the signage to tell people not to feed the pigeons."

The leaflets will contain information for the public and business owners about removing rubbish and not feeding the birds.

But Lincoln BIG said it will not be carrying out a cull of the birds.

"We will be working with the street wardens and the police to get the message out there," said Matt Corrigan. "No matter how much we cull the birds, if there's a large quantity of food around they will carry on breeding.

"We are never going to completely eradicate pigeons but we do want to cut down their numbers."

For other methods of pigeon control, see Wednesday's Echo.