A council has decided not to remove a town centre seat.

Oakham Town Council has voted to keep the concrete seat which is on High Street in Oakham, outside the now-closed Wilko.

The seat, which is covered in pigeon excrement and graffiti, is well-used, but one councillor had suggested it be removed altogether.

Coun Joyce Lucas was absent from the meeting, but in a letter to the council said: "One of the public seats outside the now closed Wilko store is in a dreadful state of repair and maintenance. The whole area is full of weeds, bird droppings, graffiti, and bird feathers. Naturally the hanging baskets have been removed now the building is empty.

"There are two seats in the area. One is the new style and needs to be repainted. The other is the old style with concrete base, this one is difficult to maintain due to its location directly under the bird's nest. My suggestion is that this seat be removed completely as it cannot be relocated."

However, the mayor, Coun Sally-Anne Wadsworth pointed out: "We can't remove that seat because it's concrete and it's concreted to the pavement. We would need a pneumatic drill and angle grinders to actually move it; and then, when we'd taken it off the pavement, we wouldn't be able put it somewhere else because half of the support legs would have been left behind – it would be very heavy to move."

Coun Paul Buxton said: "It is also very regularly used – people are always sat on it. Pigeon poo or not, there always seems to be somebody sitting on it whenever I've gone past."

Coun Wadsworth continued: "It is however a mess, and it is on the list of works to be carried out by our handyman for cleaning and painting."

advertisement

Coun Buxton suggested: "If we can find out where the pigeons are roosting above the seat, we can put spikes in to stop them and they won't poo on it anymore."

Coun Adam Lowe agreed, saying: "That way we mitigate the need to remove the seat – which is well used – and will be more so when it isn't covered with pigeon excrement."

Members agreed that the appropriate action was to install anti-pigeon spikes to prevent the birds, rather than remove the bench.