Coo, you’re a pest

A pigeon tucks in to leftover food at Reeve the Baker
LOVE them or hate them, pigeons are causing problems for two Devizes cafes.

Customers eating in the courtyard at the rear of Reeve the Baker and Leykers Coffee Central shop are being plagued by pigeons which swoop down to snap up morsels of food.The problem has become so bad that Reeve has put up a notice urging customers not to feed the birds.

Both shops are in The Brittox and the eating areas back on to the central car park.
No one from Reeve was available for comment but Graham Parker, manager of Leykers, said the pigeons are annoying.
He said: "They are driving me nuts. They are a real nuisance.
"My staff try extremely hard to keep the tables clean and tidy but unfortunately we can't pick up every single crumb that falls from the tables."

He said the pigeons have become a problem in the last three months and cafee staff suspect someone has been feeding them on a daily basis.

"I don't believe any of our customers feed them but if they did we would tell them not to," he said.
But Carol Gotts of Devizes, who is a regular customer at Reeve, had not been put off by the antics of the pigeons.

She said: "I don't think they are a problem. The staff here are good, they are quick in picking up the trays from the tables.

"I've never seen an aggressive pigeon.You can't really stop them, if they see food they will come out.

"If they get to be a problem while you are sitting outside you can shoo them away."

Devizes Town Council had a problem with pigeons sitting on the roof of the Corn Exchange in the Market Place about four years ago and discouraged them by installing wire.

Deputy town clerk Simon Fisher said: "The pigeons were sitting on the roof at the front of the building and on the Station Road side of the building and were making a mess on the pavement which wasn't pleasant.

"Since we put the wire up to deter them we haven't had a problem."

Mandy Bradley, environmental protection manager at Kennet District Council, said: "We have never had people complaining to us about pigeons in Devizes.

"As an authority we don't tend to deal with pigeons and we would advise people to contact a specialist pest control contractor."

The problem in Devizes does not compare to Trafalgar Square in London where an estimated 4,000 pigeons used to gather.

An action group called Save The Trafalgar Square Pigeons was set up to cut pigeon numbers by limiting feeding to just one early morning session.