Pigeon proofing and pest treatment address the birds already on a building. A separate legal tool addresses the behaviour that draws them there in the first place: councils in England and Wales can restrict public feeding of pigeons and other wildlife using a Public Spaces Protection Order, and a number have done so.
The legal basis
Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) were introduced by section 59 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. This part of the Act applies only to England and Wales. To make an order, a local authority must be satisfied on reasonable grounds that activities in a public place have had, or are likely to have, a detrimental effect on the quality of life of people in the area, that the effect is or is likely to be persistent or continuing in nature, and that the effect is such as to make the activities unreasonable and justify the restrictions the authority wants to impose. A PSPO must identify the restricted area and set out exactly what is prohibited or required, and the Act limits councils to prohibitions or requirements that are reasonable for preventing or reducing the detrimental effect identified.
How feeding restrictions get used
A council does not need a species-specific power to restrict pigeon feeding; it uses the general PSPO mechanism, framing the detrimental effect as the mess, fouling, noise or vermin risk associated with concentrated bird feeding in a particular square, park or shopping precinct. Orders of this kind have been adopted by a number of English councils covering feeding of pigeons and other wildlife in specified public areas, with breach treated as a criminal offence rather than a bylaw matter. Before making an order, the authority is required to publicise the proposal and consult the local chief police officer, the Police and Crime Commissioner (or the equivalent body in London), and any other representatives of the local community it considers appropriate, giving residents and businesses a formal opportunity to object before restrictions take effect.
Duration and renewal
A PSPO lasts for a maximum of three years unless extended. An authority can extend an order before it expires if it is satisfied, in writing, that doing so is necessary to prevent the detrimental effect recurring or continuing, and each extension is itself capped at three years, though there is no limit on the number of times an order can be renewed. A newer expedited version of the power, added to the Act in 2022 for use near schools and vaccination or testing sites, allows orders lasting up to six months rather than three years, but that mechanism is aimed at protest-related obstruction rather than wildlife feeding.
What breach actually costs
Breaching a PSPO is a criminal offence. In practice, councils typically issue a fixed penalty notice, commonly £100, which a person has a set period to pay in order to discharge their liability for the offence without a conviction being recorded. If the fixed penalty is not paid, the matter can proceed to prosecution, and a conviction carries a fine at level 3 on the standard scale, up to £1,000. This is the same broad penalty structure used for other PSPO-restricted behaviour, such as public drinking bans or dog control zones, rather than a special pigeon-specific penalty.
What this means locally
Because PSPOs are made area by area rather than nationally, whether feeding pigeons is restricted, and where, depends entirely on whether the relevant council has made an order covering that specific public space. A pest controller or property manager dealing with a persistent pigeon problem in a town centre should check whether the local authority already has a feeding-restriction PSPO in force for that location, since an existing order changes both what enforcement options are available and what a business can legitimately ask the council to act on if feeding is contributing to the infestation.
Common questions
Does a PSPO ban feeding birds in my own garden? No. PSPOs restrict activity in the public place named in the order itself, such as a park, square or housing estate common area; feeding in a private garden falls outside a public-space order unless the specific order says otherwise.
Can I be fined on the spot for feeding pigeons? Enforcement officers issue a fixed penalty notice rather than an on-the-spot fine; a person then has a set period, commonly 14 days, to pay it before the case can proceed toward prosecution.
Do all councils have a feeding restriction? No. A PSPO only applies where the local authority has gone through the consultation process and formally made an order for a named area, so coverage varies significantly between councils and even between different sites within the same borough.
The bottom line
Public Spaces Protection Orders give English and Welsh councils a general-purpose tool, not a pigeon-specific law, that a number of authorities have used to restrict feeding pigeons and other wildlife in named public areas where the activity is shown to have a persistent, unreasonable detrimental effect. Orders require prior consultation, last up to three years at a time, and can be renewed repeatedly. Breach is a criminal offence, usually met in the first instance with a fixed penalty notice around £100, rising to a fine of up to £1,000 on conviction. Because coverage is decided locally, the only way to know whether feeding is restricted in a specific location is to check that council’s own PSPO register.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk, “Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, Part 4, Chapter 2”
- Harrow Council, “Public Spaces Protection Order (Wildlife Feeding) – FAQs” (talk.harrow.gov.uk)