A grandfather who buys 30 loaves of bread each day to feed the birds has been ordered to pay more than £2,000 after officials claimed he contributed to the town’s vermin problem.
Brian Wilkins, 76, received a Community Protection Order after councillors complained about him scattering bread around Hartlepool. His daughter Paula Allison claims her dad, affectionately known as the ‘Bird Man of Hartlepool’, had tried to avoid areas he was banned from but continued with his favourite activity.
On Tuesday Wilkins, of Sheriff Street, was found guilty of breaching the order between January 16 and October 31 last year after a trial at Teesside Magistrates’ Court in a prosecution brought by Hartlepool Council. He has been sentenced to a two-year criminal behaviour order, fined £250, ordered to pay a £100 surcharge and must pay court costs of £1,826.73.
The court heard Wilkins threw down “excessive amounts” of bird seed and food from a trolley around parts of the town including the town centre. The pensioner accepted putting out the food but argued he had a “reasonable excuse” saying the birds would starve otherwise.
He became known to residents of the town, who would often see him out with his trolley, surrounded by birds, and scurrying rats after a bite to eat.
But the court heard businesses, including managers of Middleton Grange Shopping Centre and Camerons Brewery, complained they had seen an increase of rats as a result. His court summons stated that he had continued to “ignore advice and requests to stop placing food and feed for wildlife”, leading to “the persistent attraction of vermin”.
As a result of his “unreasonable” behaviour, the summons alleged he was “significantly impacting the quality of life” of the people of Hartlepool. However, his daughter Paula, 57, said local people supported her dad who she said just wanted to help the birds.
She said: “He’s overjoyed to see them enjoying the food. “It saddens him because of the lack of food because of the lesser and lesser green areas and the removal of their food sources because of human expansion. It’s more of a commitment than an enjoyment. All he spends his pension on is bread and seeds.
“He used to work but now he doesn’t have a car. He’s restricted. As he’s gotten older, he’s had nothing else to do. He used to go dancing but now he’s got out of society, practically. I don’t know how many years he’s been doing this for. They are trying to say my dad’s the cause of rats, but that’s rubbish – they have been around for ages.
“One woman came up to us the other day and said, ‘The people of Hartlepool back you in this’. He’s not harming anybody. He’s just feeding the animals.”
A council spokesperson said the authority’s “preferred approach” has been to try and “resolve this matter informally and bring about a voluntary change in Mr Wilkins’ behaviour”. He added: “Although legal action is very much a last resort, his failure to co-operate has left us with no other option. We have a duty to safeguard public health in the wider community, and Mr Wilkins’ continued actions have led to numerous recurring complaints about rats from businesses and individual residents.”
A note left on the ‘Bird Man’s’ window of his home in Sheriff Street, Hartlepool, reads: “HBC – you will be guilty of mass murder of our Hartlepudlian Wildlife.”
