Bird deterrent trial in Teignmouth

Fresh measures are being taken by Teignbridge District Council to dissuade pigeons from nesting underneath Teignmouth’s iconic Pier.

Teignbridge District Council, with the support of the owners of Teignmouth Pier, is trialling a bird scarer to deter birds from roosting under the structure where their droppings fall into the sea or the sands below and ultimately end up affecting bathing water quality.

The trial will run from today (Friday 2 January 2015) for a month during daytime hours. It forms part of the Love Your Beach campaign which encourages people to protect the beach and the waters around it.

Bird scarers are harmless devices that uses the sounds of other birds to discourage seagulls or pigeons from coming inland and roosting. The one being used by Teignbridge emits different bird distress calls. It is hoped the trial period will show how much of an impact pigeon and seagull dropping has on water bathing quality.

These standards will be getting even tougher and need to be met by the end of the summer season 2015. The changes mean all bathing waters in the UK will be classified as Excellent, Good, Sufficient or Poor. The good news is that all of Teignbridge’s beaches will meet the new targets with the exception of Teignmouth Town which is predicted to be classed as ‘poor’. This means signs would need to be displayed advising against bathing from May 2016.

Bathing water quality is assessed on levels of bacteria detected in the water which can come from different sources. One of the main challenges faced by Teignmouth Town Beach is seagull and pigeon droppings, something which contributes towards 75% of pollution in the bathing waters.

Lucie Cooper is a director at Grand Pier (Teignmouth) Ltd, owners of the Pier.

She said: “We understand the environmental issues and forthcoming EU regulation changes regarding bathing water quality and as a popular seaside resort, tourism would suffer if the beach were affected by the classification.

“We wholly support the initiative to try with whatever means available to dissuade the pigeons from roosting under the Pier, thereby reducing the amount of bacteria that enters the sea. We have tested alternative measures, with little success over the years but maybe the installation of a pigeon “scarer” will bring a more positive outcome.”

Teignbridge’s Love Your Beach campaign is designed to raise awareness of the issue, encourage people to do their bit and look at new ways of discouraging birds inland.

Work has included beach cleans, business forums, community events, poster and leaflet campaigns and investigating and preventing pollution sources from entering the River Teign and estuary. The campaign action group is made of representatives from Teignbridge, the Environment Agency, South West Water, Teignmouth Town Council, Teignmouth Harbourmaster Commission and Town Development Manager.

Cllr Sylvia Russell is a Love Your Beach Action Group member. She is also Teignbridge District Council’s ward members for Teignmouth East, the council’s executive spokeswoman for health and wellbeing and a Teignmouth town councillor.

She said:“Teignmouth Town Council is taking the lead to raise awareness of how the public can help us raise the status of our bathing waters. Members of the Love Your Beach action group will be on the Promenade on Boxing Day during the RLNI Walk into the Sea with leaflets, information and free chocolates to talk to people about what we are doing.”

Teignbridge District Council’s ward member for Teignmouth West and Teignmouth town councillor Cllr David Cox is a Love Your Beach Action Group member. He said:

“This is very important issue for Teignmouth, so naturally I'm very pleased we are installing this device. We need to get to the bottom of why Teignmouth beach water quality performs so badly in comparison with other similar areas.

“Teignmouth is a great place to live and visit. The Love Your Beach campaign is vitally important to the prosperity of the town, we can't just rely on the Environment Agency and councils - it is the responsibility of us all to look after Teignmouth Town Beach."

Cllr George Gribble, Teignbridge District Council’s executive spokesman for communities, recreation and leisure, said:

“We are doing lots of things to help improve the bathing water quality for Teignmouth Town Beach and we hope this trial will provide us with more information about what impact the nesting birds are having and what else we can all do to prevent it happening.

“There’s no doubt that this will prove to be a bit of a talking point and we want to reassure people who hear the device that it is harmless. This trial is a really good idea and we await the results with interest.”

To find out more on how you can “Love Your Beach” visit www.teignbridge.gov.uk/bathingwaterquality

Things people can do to help include:
• Respect the dog bans and clean up after your dog
• Don’t feed the seagulls and pigeons and make sure litter is put in bins
• Don’t flush fats, oils and grease down the sink
• Bin it, don’t flush it-only put toilet paper down the loo