A Sidmouth pensioner, who was served with a council notice to stop her feeding birds, has launched a landmark legal challenge to have the order revoked.
Rose Rodell, 70, appeared at Exeter Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, August 11, for the first step of an appeal against the community protection notice issued by East Devon District Council.
The notice, which was served in March this year, refers to the ‘feeding of birds with grain, peanuts and other food within the area of Sidmouth’.
The council says that the food attracts ‘a high number of large birds, including pigeons’, and is ‘affecting the properties and wellbeing of residents of Sidmouth’ – specifically in the area around Mrs Rodell’s York Street home.
Giles Salter, representing East Devon District Council, told the court he believed this was the first appeal against such a notice in the country.
The matter will come before the court again in October after both parties have had chance to put their cases together.
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