A resident of Alcúdia has been battling the City Council for months in an effort to get rid of an infestation of pigeons in a ruined building in the old town.
Jaume Adrover, who lives in Carrer de n’Amorós, says bird droppings have contaminated the water tank, attempts to get rid of the birds by using trap cages have failed and that the owner of the building has not closed down the building, despite an execution order from the Municipal Planning Department.
Execution order
Alcúdia Town Councillor, Joaquín Cantalapiedra, confirmed that an execution order has been issued to secure the building in case it collapses and says the owner was told to close it while renovations were being done.
"We will ask the property owner to put some nets while the rehabilitation is underway because it is a fairly large colony of pigeons," says Councillor Cantalapiedra.
The Governor of Health of the City Council of Alcúdia, Agüi Lobo, insists that the pigeons “are not a serious problem for the rest of the old town because they are only nesting in one particular street.”
The City Council is using cages to catch the birds and take them to Natura Parc, but Governor Lobo admits that "it is a very slow process and not very efficient.”
Jaume Adrover has filed complaint documents with the Departments of Urban Planning and Health and is adamant that he will continue to fight the problem.
"It is an important problem because they continue to breed uncontrollably and analytics confirm that, as we feared, we can no longer drink the water from the tank because it is contaminated by faeces," he said.
Risks
Adrover also warns that unless urgent measures are taken, the situation could spread to other areas of Alcúdia old town because the pigeon colony in Carrer de n’Amorós is getting bigger all the time.
“We will continue to place trap cages which is what the regulations allow us to do and for now we have only found pigeons in Carrer de n’Amorós and Carrer de la Pau,” said Councillor Lobo.