It's war: council has pigeons in its sights

Council has set aside $12,500 in the 2011-12 draft management plan to fund a scientific study into options for ridding the central business district of the winged pests.

Councillor Monica Morse has been a long-time supporter of moves to rid the CBD of pigeons.

“Pigeons are a real problem and cause damage to buildings. It is not just the faeces that causes outer building damage, it blocks the pipes, causing water to leak through buildings,” she said.

Cr Morse regularly has people come to her complaining about the pigeons, and welcomed news council was seeking the best and most cost-effective way to rid the CBD of them.

In September last year, council received a report that pigeon numbers has significantly increased within private and public buildings in the CBD and an action plan needed to be developed.

However, Cr Morse said council would need help from other building owners to properly tackle the issue.

“We need to tackle this as a whole community,” she said.

“We will be giving advice and guidance to community groups to try and overcome the problem.”

The draft management plan identifies a number of CBD buildings under council’s control that have been badly marked by pigeon poo.

These include the post office building in Howick Street, the Civic Centre on Russell Street, the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum, and the Bathurst Region Library and Art Gallery.

But pigeons also gather near banks, churches and shopping centres that are not under council control.

“The old TAFE building in William Street is also badly affected,” Cr Morse said.

“The street cleaners do their best to look after it but we need to think of something else to fix the problem.

“It is up to council and [the private] owners of buildings to help manage the feral pigeon population.”

Getting rid of the pigeons is the first part of the plan. Making sure they don’t come back is the difficult part.

“Pigeons like to come back to their homes,” Cr Morse said.

“We have found in the past getting rid of them is hard, as they always come back. But we are putting together a scientific plan and will work out how to keep them away.”

Pigeons are classed as a pest and carry with them health risks. Faeces can cause diseases such as salmonella.