Chiefs left red-faced over ducks

Not one complaint was received by a Black Country council about the feeding of ducks prior to a woman being handed a £75 fine for doing so, it was claimed today.

Last month Vanessa Kelly, aged 26, was hit with the fine for feeding ducks in Smethwick Hall Park in Londonderry Lane, Smethwick, with her 18 month old son. Sandwell Council later rescinded the penalty, but defended its policy, saying that it had received "many complaints" about the feeding of pigeons and wildfowl across the borough.

But, council records revealed under the Freedom on Information Act show that while pigeons have been the subject of many reports no complaint was made over ducks, swans or geese.

The information reveals that in the last nine years, from April 28, 2000 to November 19, 2009 there were 306 complaints about pigeons and nine about birds in general.

Malcolm Ford, the UK Independence Party representative in Sandwell which submitted the request for the information, said: "I didn't believe that there was anybody in the borough who had any problems with ducks. There is no problem with ducks."

But Sandwell Council today hit back saying it had received complaints about rats and the feeding of birds was linked to that problem.

The authority added that the information it provided did not include telephone enquiries received about the feeding of birds, where a member of the public would be given verbal advice but the call would not be recorded on a database.

Council leader, Councillor Darren Cooper, said: "The council has recorded thousands of complaints about the problems caused by the feeding of pigeons, geese and other birds since 2000.

"These complaints are recorded under different headings on our database.

"Council members get many complaints about the mess and nuisance of waterfowl," he added.