PEDESTRIANS walking under a city centre bridge need no longer fear being blessed by roosting pigeons after the entire structure was bird-proofed in a £16,000 project.

Business owners in Fisherton Street and residents living close to the railway bridge called for action in November, saying the birds had become a health hazard.

Salisbury city councillor Matt Dean said it was the “number one issue” that residents in his ward complained to him about and led the way to secure funding from the city council to solve the problem.

He said more than 80 pigeons were removed with many being rehoused at an animal sanctuary.

"We first had to get permission from Network Rail before obtaining approval for the three-night road closure," he said.

"The work itself involved removing all the pigeons, cleaning the structure of guano, nests and dead birds, pressure washing it with disinfectant, fitting galvanised metal sheeting onto the lower parts of the bridge so if vehicles do hit it, it won't damage the wire mesh, and then putting the wire mesh into place.

"We have also arranged for the area under the bridge to be pressure washed this week so there won't be any further mess under there.

"Local residents are absolutely delighted - this has been a problem for over 40 years."

However Kevin Drew from Creatures in Crisis, the West Winterslow-based animal rescue centre which took in many of the birds said he disagreed with the bird-proofing and that he had seen eight dead pigeons in one day on the ground by the bridge not long after the work.

"I was brought a lot of pigeons to make sure they were all ok but once the adults ones were released they went straight back to the bridge," he said. "They couldn't get to their nests under the bridge because they had been taken away and because of the wire mesh.

"All I can think is they died of exhaustion as they tried to perch on the bridge - that's where they were born and that's where they'll go back to.

"They weren't doing any harm - the council sees them as vermin because of the mess they make but in the First World War they saved thousands of lives by getting messages to embassies and they weren't classed as vermin then."

The centre will take care of the baby pigeons until they are fully grown and once released they are expected to stay close by.

Cllr Dean said: "It was never a safe humane place for pigeons to breed - there were an awful lot of injured birds.

"I'm delighted from an animal welfare point of view that we have removed the possibility of nesting in an unsuitable structure.

"I'm absolutely positive what we have done is a humane solution."

Paul Dauwalder, who runs three businesses in the Fisherton Street, said: "It's a good move. I just hope it's 100 per cent pigeon proof and that human technology is ahead of pigeon technology. They're smart birds. We will have to wait and see."