Cabbie's plea to Swansea city centre visitors: 'Don't feed birds'Thursday, October 06, 2011Taxi drivers in Swansea are in a flap after claiming people feeding pigeons and seagulls are turning their rank into a scene from Hitchcock's The Birds.
Fed up Colin Bevan claims the people feeding the feathered foes are causing them to flock to the taxi pick-up point next to St Mary's Church in the city centre.
In scenes reminiscent of the Alfred Hitchcock-directed 1963 horror film, taxi drivers said pigeons and seagulls regularly pooped on their cars and gathered in such numbers they scared the public.
Mr Bevan said: "As soon as people start feeding all these birds flock to the floor.
"We are on to them all the time because when they feed them they are right by the side of the taxi rank and the birds do their business all over our cabs. You have to wash it off or else it will damage the paint work."
Mr Bevan said the number of birds was scaring people in the busy city centre street.
"We get a lot of people who are intimidated by this large frenzied flock of birds," he said.
Mr Bevan said he caught one man creating a feeding frenzy next to the rank as a woman passerby screamed out for him to stop, on film.
"I have filmed it and one poor woman was screaming at him to stop but he was just laughing at her."
Mr Bevan said he and his fellow taxi drivers were at a loss over what to do to make the situation better.
He said: "I have spoken to the council about it and they say that there is no rule that stops people from feeding pigeons and seagulls.
"They are becoming so familiar with people feeding them that they are attacking people walking past who happen to be eating food."
A spokesman for Swansea Council said: "We don't have huge problems in the city centre with seagulls.
"However, when people in the city centre feed birds such as seagulls or pigeons this can make matters worse.
"We would urge city centre visitors to avoid feeding birds if they can."
This is not the first time seagulls have had bad press in the city.
This summer people complained about seagulls pooping on them and ruining their clothes.
And Simon Griffiths said he was so fed up with seabirds in the beer garden of his Cross Keys pub that he was going to bring in a falconer to dispatch natural justice.
He said at the time: "We have a big problem with seagulls coming down into our beer garden, looking for scraps of food, not to mention the mess they leave behind on the pavement and cars."
Source; http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Cabbi ... story.html