Town hall bosses are in a flap as they pay £360,000 for mesh to protect solar panels from pigeons
- Nottingham City Council has spent £360k to keep pigeons away from solar panels
- Officials received 300 complaints from residents about nesting birds
- The guano reduces the amount of sunlight that the panels catch
- The council has installed solar panels in over 3,000 homes across the city
A council installing solar panels on thousands of homes to meet green targets has had to spend more than £360,000 on wire mesh to keep out pigeons.
Nottingham City Council has received more than 300 complaints from its tenants about birds nesting under the panels.
Besides being a nuisance, pigeons cause roofs to leak and drains to clog, while their droppings are considered a human health hazard. Dung also reduces the amount of sunlight the panels catch.
The Labour-run authority must seek permission to spend £362,664 on anti-pigeon meshes for the old and new panels as they are monitored by a government-appointed panel from 2020.

Nottingham City Council has received more than 300 complaints from its tenants about birds nesting under the panels

Besides being a nuisance, pigeons cause roofs to leak and drains to clog, while their droppings are considered a human health hazard. Dung also reduces the amount of sunlight the panels catch
This was followed by the failure of a non-profit energy company set up by the council, costing taxpayers £38 million.
Earlier this year, an investigation found £24million of ring-fenced house rent income could have been wrongly spent on projects other than housing – on top of nearly £16million of funds in the account of housing income previously discovered to be ‘unlawfully’ spent.
The solar panel scheme is intended for low-income residents and is funded by millions in central government grants.
The council has installed more than 3,000 panels on tenants’ roofs as part of its efforts to become the UK’s first carbon-neutral city by 2028 and says the birds nesting under them are a common sight. problem.
‘A common issue discovered with these solar panels is birds nesting under the array,’ said a council spokesman.
‘This has led to many issues including complaints from residents, blocked drains, broken tiles, leaking roofs, unwanted noise pollution and the build-up of guano (waste) which is classified as a hazard. to the health of the people.’
In June the government said it was ‘considering’ bringing in commissioners to help run the council for the next two years.
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