Following an incident at The Council House on 24/03/2026 we are asking Nottingham City Council to remove anti-bird netting from this building and ALL Council run buildings in Nottingham
On 24th March, a pigeon (now affectionately known as Duncan) became trapped behind netting on The Council House, this resulted in Nottingham Fire and Rescue attending to attempt to free the pigeon. In this instance, the fire team were unable to rescue the pigeon, they also said they may have to reseal the hole they made for Duncan and leave him to die, however after a visit to the building this evening, Duncan could not be seen, we will however continue to check over the coming days for him.
This follows on from another recent incident at Nottinghams Mercure Hotel, documented by Humane Wildlife Solutions, where we saw multiple pigeons dead and dying in netting, showing the dangers to both animals and human health that this netting can cause. They thankfully agreed to remove the netting going forward.
With regards to Fire and rescue call outs for birds trapped in netting, while free at point of use, this can cost in excess of £450 PER HOUR for non emergencies. Managing incidents that are caused by these nettings are directly costing the taxpayer; Nottingham residents and businesses are paying their council tax to pick up the bill for unnecessary costs caused BY the council choosing to use bird deterring netting that, clearly, doesnt deter birds.
Further holes, that Duncan must have got in via, were seen in the netting today, meaning this needs to be addressed as soon as possible before more birds get trapped and suffer unnecessarily and more public resources used.
A government petition to ban this type of netting has reached nearly ten thousand signatures in recent months, we are asking Nottingham City Council to get ahead of the game and show the rest of the UK they are taking initiative on this issue and will pledge to remove netting from ALL council run buildings across Nottingham.
