Couple given Asbo-style warning after feeding gulls
Council bans owners of rewilded garden from handing out dog biscuits to ‘nuisance’ birds
A COUPLE have been threatened with an Asbo-style warning after being accused of deliberately attracting hordes of gulls to their garden with dog biscuits.
Stephen Atkinson Jones, 71, and his wife Caroline, 64, who have lived at their home in Bexhill, East Sussex, for 27 years, were branded a nuisance in a complaint to the council.
They say they have been throwing biscuits into their rear courtyard at 8am each morning to feed a flock of about 10 gulls since 2009.
And they say they have been made to feel like “public enemy number one” for rewilding their garden at their four-bedroom semi-detached home.
In August last year, an environmental health officer from Rother district council visited the couple’s home following a complaint that they were “causing a nuisance due to persistent bird feeding”.
Internal correspondence, seen by The Telegraph, shows the council received a complaint alleging the “swarms of birds/gulls” have been defecating on their patio and on their clean washing. The council ruled the complaints were “substantiated” by video evidence.
Phil Smith, on behalf of the council, urged Mr Atkinson-jones to stop feeding the birds, a request which he complied with.
“Very amiable no issues whatsoever,” Mr Smith wrote of the conversation in a report submitted to bosses.
But three months later, Mr Smith sent a letter to the couple issuing them with a formal “community protection warning” under the Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014.
The letter, dated Nov 23 2023, barred the couple from using food to lure birds to their garden and stipulated they were only allowed to feed “wild birds smaller than a common pigeon”.
And it warned them they could be prosecuted if they breached the terms of the notice.
A Freedom of Information request submitted by Mr Atkinson-jones in January revealed that the council had received only one complaint over the bird-feeding.
Mr Atkinson-jones said he is seeking legal advice, adding: “I have got the time now, I have got the money, and I have got the inclination to stop being bullied. I don’t think that we’re doing anything that we should actually be warned with a community protection notice, we don’t want to be unreasonable neighbours, we don’t want to cause anyone distress.”
The couple insist their garden is care- fully looked after and cited the environmental benefits of rewilding as championed by BBC presenter Chris Packham.
“I don’t know what the problem is. Every plant we grow supports the bees, the butterflies. It is not that we neglect our garden, it is just that we have a different view, it is a naturalistic garden.
“We just want to live our life. We’re law-abiding decent people.”
Rother district council has been approached for comment.