c2c Thorpe Bay commuters fury over station covered in bird mess

c2c has insisted it is powerless to prevent the pigeon mess at Thorpe Bay train station because the birds are “young”. 

However, commuters claim this has been ongoing for almost a year, but it is now worse than ever.

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c2c bosses say due to the pigeons being young they are not allowed to do anything apart from clean up the mess at the moment.

Joe Smith, 42, and a regular commuter from Thorpe Bay, said there is nowhere to sit because of the issue.

He said: “It is just disgusting.

“It is all over the floor, the handrails, the posters, and the seats.

“There is no seating there because every bench is covered in pigeon mess.

“The pigeons all roost in the roof and ‘deposit’ on people standing underneath.

“It is grim.

“It has been going on for months and months, but this is the worst I have seen it.”

Another daily commuter at Thorpe Bay station, who asked not to be named, added: “The video shows you how bad it is.

“They are cleaning it up, but it has been going on for so long now. There are more and more birds there now.

“It is ridiculous. All the seats and everything is covered. They do try and clean it, but everything is still covered, and is full of mess.

“It is on both platforms, and something needs to be raised on the public health side really.

“Nothing is being done to stop this permanently.”

In a tweet, in response to complainants from a commuter, c2c said: “We are sorry about this.

“The teams are in process of putting in new conduit covers and spiking.

“Many of the pigeons are young and the teams are not allowed to do anything apart from clean up at the moment as per DEFRA conditions.

“We are sorry for inconvenience caused.”

A spokesperson added that c2c has used various tools, including heavily spiking the area and using a harrier hawk to scare birds away. 

However, the “resident pigeons” have relocated to other areas of the station.