The Times
January 13, 2003

Pensioner evicted for feeding the birds
By Simon de Bruxelles

A PENSIONER is to be evicted from her housing association flat because she refused to stop feeding the birds in the back garden.
For three years Barbara Simpson, 64, has attracted flocks of pigeons, sparrows and starlings to the block of flats where she lives by throwing bread out of her window. Her elderly neighbours complained that the hundreds of birds were a health hazard and exposed them to illness because of their droppings.

Anchor Housing Association, which owns the flats in Weymouth, Dorset, took out a court injunction last year to stop Mrs Simpson feeding the birds. It had even put a mesh up at her windows in an attempt to stop her feeding the birds.

The housing association took her to a county court to repossess her flat, but she was reprieved by the judge on condition that she agreed to stop feeding the birds.

After she returned from court she was filmed by a private investigator hired by the housing association pushing bread through the mesh as birds perched on the window sill.

The association reapplied for an eviction order at a county court, and a judge has now upheld the application, describing Mrs Simpson as "a thorough nuisance to her neighbours".

Mrs Simpson now has two weeks to leave her home and will have to find bed and breakfast accommodation.

This is the lady I referred to above. Weymouth and Portland Borough Council's officers were responsible for starting the process, 4 years ago that ended in this lady being sent to Holloway Prison. The council will now have to find a home for her and will no doubt continue to make her life a misery. Bed and breakfast will be the option as she is considered by our council to have made herself homeless.