Flying rats spreading filth and disease or just wild birds as deserving of our concern as any others?

Views about pigeons have always been divided, but does anyone really understand the law when it comes to controlling them?

This week I witnessed an old fellow brazenly flouting the law. Even after I pointed out what he was doing he simply ignored me and carried on.

Openly feeding pigeons on the street from two huge bags of grain, he refused point-blank to accept what he was doing was wrong.

The trouble is, when I pointed out his actions to a passing police officer he simply advised me to mind my own business and not to get involved.

If we’re not prepared to enforce our laws you have to ask what is the point in having them?

Surely controlling pigeons benefits everyone and by not taking action against these anti-social, irresponsible people who feed these birds we are condoning their actions, justifying what they are doing and encouraging the spread of disease.

Pigeons are recognised as pests right across the country, but the UK doesn’t have any law forbidding the feeding of wild birds. Instead, we rely upon a hotchpotch of bylaws drawn up and overseen by borough councils which adopt wildly different approaches to the issue.

Some don’t even recognise the problem while others not only make it clear it is illegal to feed them but actually offer advice on how to kill them as humanely as possible.

I think it is high time all councils in our area published their policy and their bylaws very clearly on their websites so everyone knows where they stand.

A lonely woman who said she fed pigeons in her garden because they were the only company she could get was fined £2,300 after her neighbours complained and she refused to stop feeding them.

Meanwhile, Beryl Withers, 81, who’d just finished a sandwich, emptied out the remaining crumbs for the birds. Council wardens told her she was breaking the law and could face a £2,000 fine – in the end she had to pay £50.

So, in theory anyone who leave titbits out on a bird table could end up being fined.

All this while, the guy I saw in the town centre goes on unquestioned.