Camden News: Disy Dosge

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Camden News - by SIMON WROE
Published: 28 August 2008

Daisy Dodge with pigeons in her back garden

Gran warned: Stop feeding pigeons or face legal action

A GRANDMOTHER has been threatened with legal action for feeding birds around her Gospel Oak home. Daisy Dodge, 89, puts down seed and nuts for pigeons that congregate around her council flat in Herbert Street.
Mrs Dodge, a retired seamstress who suffers from serious heart complications and arthritis, was sent a warning letter last week after she replaced anti-pigeon spikes on her windows with flower boxes. “For nearly 40 years I’ve been feeding the birds,” she said. “Now I can’t do anything. I’m frightened to go out in case the pigeons follow me and the council think I’ve been feeding them again. It’s worrying – I think I’ll end up in prison or be evicted.”
She added: “When my husband fought in World War II pigeons were used to bring messages to the troops. I don’t see what’s wrong with them. The council say they spread diseases but I’d have been dead long ago if that were the case.”
Council officials say they are acting after complaints from neighbours. They originally told Mrs Dodge she must restrict bird feeding to her garden but then upgraded the warning to an outright ban a few weeks ago.
When the pigeons still gathered, council workmen replaced window boxes with spikes, which Mrs Dodge removed with the help of a passer-by. The next day she received a letter from the council charging her for the spikes and threatening legal action “to prevent [her] causing this nuisance”.
Friends and neighbours are supporting Mrs Dodge, saying she has been victimised by “heavy-handed” council bosses. Angie Warman, owner of the Pets Corner shop in Queen’s Crescent, said: “They’ve really got it in for her. It has absolutely scared the life out of her. She can’t understand why she can’t feed them.”
Thanet Social Club, in Herbert Street, has offered to allow Mrs Dodge to feed the birds on its grounds, subject to Town Hall approval.
A council spokeswoman said: “We have received numerous complaints from neighbours of Mrs Dodge who are quite rightly fed up with the smell of pigeon droppings, clean washing being ruined and finding dead pigeons in their gardens. We have only instructed our legal department as a very last resort due to Mrs Dodge refusing to stop feeding the birds.”

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If traders have been warned about the consequences and still ignored them in this way they should be named and shamed. It's disgraceful.
Georgina Parry