The Tarragona City Council prepares dissuasive and accompanying actions against people who feed pigeons in public spaces, a practice prohibited in the city and sanctioned with fines of 100 euros. The council has launched the diagnostic phase within the new urban bird management and pest control plan, renewed last summer.
The contract was awarded to the company Gestió de Residus i Biodiversitat, SL, which must now prepare an X-ray of the problem. The task involves determining how many feeding points exist in Tarragona, where they are concentrated, what profile the people who maintain them have, what their motivations are, and how often they act.
Preliminary study to define the measures
Once that analysis is completed, the City Council will design the action strategy. The Councillor for Citizen Relations, Cleaning, Mobility and Civil Protection, Sonia Orts, has put forward the lines that can be incorporated in that phase.
"It may include initiatives such as informative campaigns, distribution of brochures, personalized visits, training sessions, actions aimed at the restaurant sector or the installation of specific signage" - Sonia Orts, councilwoman
The bidding document already includes the design, editing, supply, transport and installation of about twenty posters to warn of the prohibition of feeding pigeons. The general ordinance of citizen coexistence and use of public spaces of Tarragona sets a sanction of 100 euros for this conduct.
The administrative documentation of the contract also states that the colonies formed by feeders have been increasing in recent years. The same text adds that innovative proposals with a social management and civility component will be positively valued, considering that these people often present associated social problems and that this reality must be addressed from that perspective.
Rovira i Virgili, among the areas with highest density
One of the points where this activity has been detected is Rovira i Virgili street. Eduard Boada warned more than a year ago about the presence of a person who feeds pigeons on that street.
"Every morning we find food remains, which generates an obvious call effect" - Eduard Boada
That area ranks fourth among 14 areas analyzed by pigeon density per hectare, with 37.35, according to the census prepared by biologist Jordi Baucells, from the company Biodiversitat.cat. Ahead are Part Baixa with 71.04, the area around Via Augusta with 70.37, and the historic center with 66.43.
The report highlights that these hotspots generate dirt on urban furniture, especially on benches. The new contract sets as objective to reduce the pigeon density to 25 per hectare.
Shock plan already activated
In parallel with the diagnosis, the council has activated a shock plan within the new contract. In that framework, nests have already been removed and a specific brigade has also been launched to clean and eliminate excrement on public roads.
The municipal action thus combines immediate measures on public space with a deep intervention aimed at locating the feeding points and acting on them. The municipal priority now involves stopping an illegal practice that continues to feed the concentration of pigeons in several points of Tarragona.