Birds and the fees
WOMAN HIT WITH £50 FINE AFTER GIVING SANDWICH CRUST TO PIGEON
A RUISLIP woman is outraged after she was fined £50 for throwing the crusts from her sandwich to pigeons in Uxbridge.
Evlena Saltan, 69, had just finished her sandwich from the M&S in Uxbridge town centre and, after putting the cardboard box in the bin, decided to throw two small bits of crust to the pigeons.
Two enforcement officers then, in her words, came “from nowhere” and told Evlena she had committed an offence, giving her a £50 fine.
Despite deciding to pay the fine to avoid a court appearance, Evlena says she is still “incensed” by the lack of any sign to warn her about the law and the risk of receiving a fine.
She said: “I did not know it was an offence and there was no warning. I would not break the law for the fun of it. I’m a social worker, I respect the law.
“I’ve asked several friends if they know of this law and many of them had not. There should at least be a warning, it’s unjust.”
After the incident Evlena went back to look for signs indicating people should not feed the pigeons and said there were some but “you have to look”, adding that they “did not say there would be a fine”.
She said: “It’s the way they do it, their attitude is so wrong. I was so incensed about it and I still am now. It’s not like I was sitting there feeding them – the crust was gone within a minute.”
Evlena lodged a formal letter of appeal but received a response from Hillingdon Council saying it was “not believed that the penalty notice was issued incorrectly”.
She was told that if she did not pay the £50 fine she would receive a summons to a magistrates’ court, which would have “the power to issue a much larger fine if it feels fit”.
The letter went on to explain that the council is “running an environmental enforcement scheme in response to residents’ concerns about litter and other antisocial behaviour” and was therefore fining for any behaviour “likely to cause a nuisance”.
Hillingdon Council did not respond to requests for comment from the Gazette.