Just over £124,000 will be needed to sort a pigeon infestation at the new Broadmarsh Car Park. Management at the new car park and bus station says it has identified problems relating to pigeons getting into the car parking areas and leaving excrement.
To try to end the problem, the council is planning to install bird netting at a cost of £90,000, while a five-year maintenance programme will cost a further £35,258. The spend was approved in a delegated decision, which are decisions made outside of council meetings.
In the documents, the council’s pest control department says: “Pest control have visited site and witnessed pigeons flying in through the façade on every side of the building. Once inside, there are significant high-level places, beams and ledges, where they can perch, and provide both logistical and health and safety challenges to manage the population.
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“The first approach to dealing with pigeon issues inside ‘high pressure’ buildings is to proof the building via the use of netting to prevent access.
“All other options are only deterrents and the service has arrived at the conclusion that netting is the only feasible, safe and pragmatic long-term solution that will prevent pigeons from accessing the car park.”
According to the council, car park management have already undertaken a number actions to reduce the excrement and roosting “with limited success in reducing the pigeon infestation and their impact on the car parking areas”.
The bird netting and infestation management plan will “significantly reduce the health risk posed around pigeon excrement and feathers and address the warranty of the car park decking which currently is being compromised due to the additional cleaning,” council documents add.
Back in August last year the council was also hit with a bill of more than £360,000 due to pigeons nesting in newly-installed solar panels on homes across the city.
The authority had received more than 300 complaints about birds nesting underneath them, damaging roofs and causing a health hazard with their droppings. The Broadmarsh Car Park project had been forecasting an underspend of £5.1m, based on the approved capital budget, the council says.
Money from the approved budget will be used to pay for the plan, and the council adds the borrowing is, as such, compliant with the council’s debt reduction policy.
However, the netting will need replacing over the medium to long term, with any replacement netting requiring extra funding and further approval in the future.
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