Council Complaining about Feeding Birds

In my recent disagreement with a not so near neighbour there were two aspect of her complaints about me that actually made me laugh. One was that because I don't put my bin out every week I must be lazy. Well as I live alone, I simply don't generate that much waste. In fact by recycling what I can and refusing what I don't need, I find that I only need to have my bin emptied once every three or four weeks. Even then it is not full but for reasons of hygiene I would not want to leave it much longer than that anyway. So there was a simple reason why I don't need to put the bin out every week. I am sure that it helps keep the councils cost of collection down as well as helping the environment.

I even had a visit from the council regarding this and while I did not know where the complaint had come from, the officer from the council was happy that I was not creating any problems for my neighbours and that everything was clean and hygienic. The other matter that I was questioned over was my feeding of the birds. Again at the time I did not know where the complaint had come from, but I was told that the noise that the birds made was a problem, plus the birds were considered a health hazard.

To this I just laughed, as firstly the birds that are here were here before I moved in. Secondly, how can bird song be considered a noise? Lastly, wild birds are part of the natural environment and sensible personal hygiene eliminates any theoretical health hazard.

I could see that the council officer was uncomfortable and embarrassed at even trying to justify the visit as the complaints were so ludicrous. I even told him that the council should not even be wasting tax payers money on something so flippant. In fact as we debated the issue a flock of Jackdaws descended into the back lane, and many perched on the power and telephone cables. Nothing I had done was attracting them, there were just there as part of the natural world. He agreed that there was no reasonable cause for complaint. I also pointed out that this is a rural area and despite the best efforts of some, the wildlife is just there.

Had I known who had made the complaint and with the hindsight of what I now know, I think that I would have been even more forthright with this council officer and told him that he was inadvertently supporting bigotry.

I nearly posted here about it when it happened but as I could not believe that any council could be so stupid, I did not think that anyone would believe me. But today, on the BBC News web site was a similar report. A council is complaining about a couple that are feeding birds in their back garden.

Perhaps because of my recent experiences, I suspect that whoever has made the complaint to the council in this case also has a hidden agenda.

While I am talking about recent experiences, I did wonder if because of my own experience of racial abuse, I had been too ready to see this elsewhere. Then on Saturday I went into Consett and again while leaving the Polish delicatessen, I had a further incident of being verbally abused. Now this happened at ten in the morning by a young man who was half intoxicated, I don't think from alcohol only, and was swigging cheap wine from a bottle in the middle of the street. While previously I had ignored the abuse, I decided to challenge this moron. Even as I spoke to him he was shocked that I was British. I think I even frightened him by boldly confronting him as he backed away at my approach and slurred out the word sorry. However, I told him that in his prosthetic state he was in no position to criticise or abuse anyone. I don't know if I got through to him but he walked or more accurately stumbled away.

I do think that among some parts of the population here there is a really nasty racist attitude. This has been fed and fuelled by the trashy tabloid media and particularly the right wing press about immigration. Yet the polish people and others from Eastern Europe have come and done the jobs that the likes of this moron would not do. I doubt if the failed lab experiment would even be qualified to work, yet they parrot the lies of Rupert Murdock et al.

It is the one aspect of life in the North East that I loath and that is the prejudice that dose exist. While it is only a minority it is still very distasteful. I just wish the local government worried more about this problem than about people feeding the birds.