Newtown's pigeon problem is "slowly wrecking" an award-winning five-star bed and breakfast which is leaving customers frightened to enter their rooms.
Parkers House has been dealing with the nuisance birds leaving mess, scraping furniture and pecking at windows almost on a daily basis. Even by only opening the window an inch or two at most, the determined pigeons can shove their way into the bedrooms.
Tina Lovatt, who owns the town centre business, says the problem has worsened progressively in the town centre and feels that she has been left to deal with it by herself.
"They’re messing on the furniture and the stains don’t come off and it’s a big issue and a big pain,” she said.
“If somebody nice can let me borrow a peregrine falcon for a couple of hours to get rid of them.”
With rising costs putting pressure on businesses, Tina says she is reluctant to spend more money to prevent the problem from getting worse and is pleading for help after she was told by the council that they no longer provide a pest control service.
“We get people phoning us at 9pm or 10pm saying that they’ve got pigeons in the room, and I’ll have to rescue them. It is an issue that nobody’s willing to help me solve the problem.
“I’m not going to put discs on the windows or anything like that because I’ve spent quite a lot of money keeping the property to a good standard and I don’t think it’s right for my customers to look out the window and see spikes.
"It’s not right for customers, not in this day and age so have issues with pigeons coming in.”
Manager Zeta Jones said the issue seems to be getting worse in the town centre.
“It’s damaging the rooms because their claws are scraping stuff, messing everywhere and making more work for me. I can’t say to a customer not to open their windows, it’s not professional. It’s a very big issue and it happens more or less every single day.
“We had a phone call at 11.30pm and this man was so scared to come into his room.
“We’re a five star and Tina doesn’t want things to look untidy outside. I don’t feel she should spend money to prevent it.”
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A spokesperson for Powys County Council said: “The council has not provided a pest control service since March 2014, the service was stopped due to budgetary pressures and there being no statutory requirement to provide this service.
“The council has received a complaint from a concerned business in Newtown and has provided advice to that individual. The council does not have a duty to take any direct action in relation to the control of pigeons and as such is not intending to take further action.
“Any resident or business that is experiencing problems should contact specialist pest control contractors to carry out pigeon control and proofing work in relation to their own building.”
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