A couple threatened with prosecution by council officers for feeding birds in their wild garden have blamed next-door neighbors nicknamed ‘the Glums’ for waging a ’27-year vendetta’ against them.
Stephen Atkinson-Jones, 71, and his wife Caroline, 64, say they love wildlife and have let trees and shrubs grow freely to enhance nature in what they call “studied neglect”.
But in stark contrast nearby, Keith Edwards, 77, and his wife Pauline have a well-tended suburban front garden – with symmetrically styled hedges, ornamental mini trees and flowers.
Mr Atkinson-Jones said it was Mr and Mrs Edwards who complained to a local council about the daily bird feeding routine which attracted seagulls – widely condemned as “flying rats ” in the seaside towns because of the nuisance they cause.
For more than 20 years, he and his wife have thrown pieces of dog biscuits into the backyard at 8am to feed the seagulls and about 10 of them come down to gratefully grab their breakfast before returning again.
Living half a mile from the coast in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, there has always been a large population of seagulls in the area.
The couple also feed other birds and wildlife around their property and say many of their other neighbors do the same.
Mr Atkinson-Jones said: “We love all the wildlife – we’re very lucky here because we support the wildlife and actually so do all the other neighbours, they all feed the seagulls.
“We have woodpeckers, owls, jays and we feed them all – doves, magpies, woodpeckers.”
But a complaint to Rother District Council put a stop to the daily eating routine.
Last August, Mr and Mrs Atkinson-Jones were visited by an environmental health officer over a complaint that they were “causing a nuisance through persistent bird feeding”.
The couple agreed to stop feeding the birds, but further complaints and evidence of “persistent bird feeding and nuisance” resulted in a formal “community protection warning” under Anti-Social Behaviour. Crime and the Police Act 2014.
A letter from Phil Smith, from the council’s community protection team, said they would be issued with a Community Protection Notice if they continued to leave food on their property to feed the birds .
He described his actions as “causing excessive noise and excrement on a neighboring property”.
Failure to comply with the notice is a criminal offense “for which you may be prosecuted”, they warned.
Under the terms of the warning, Mr and Mrs Atkinson-Jones can only use bird feeders designed for birds smaller than a pigeon.
The warning reflects the case of a 97-year-old woman and her son threatened with a £2,500 fine.
Anne Seago, 97, and her Alan, 77, said they faced possible action to force them off their private property if they continued to put bird food in their garden near Blackpool.
The Bexhill-on-Sea bird feeding dispute began in 2016.
It went to “mediation”, also involved another neighbour, and Mr Atkinson-Jones said they stopped feeding after about two years.
He said how they restarted it when things “calmed down”, but another complaint last year prompted the council’s action.
Mr Atkinson-Jones said: “I feel really intimidated here. How can there be anti-social behavior and unreasonable behavior when only one person with a history of complaints against us is complaining?’
He said this was just the latest in a long line of complaints to local authorities by Mr and Mrs Edwards during almost three decades as neighbours.
It was alleged that Mr Atkinson-Jones, who owns five properties rented out through a letting agent, illegally ran a business from home.
Other complaints concerned the smoky fires in his garden, putting out a window in an outbuilding that had been boarded up, trees and bushes from his property over a road and feeding animals like badgers.
Mr Atkinson-Jones said: “Some of these have been recurring over the years and not just one-offs.
“It’s all bad, but it feeds your well-being. There’s a terrible feeling of discomfort – you’re just waiting for them to report you for something. My wife upsets a lot.
Commenting on Mr and Mrs Edwards, he said: “We call it the Glums because that’s what they are.
“They are decent people, they take care of their property, they are not harsh, they are not difficult with anyone – they just don’t like us and how we live.”
Mr Atkinson-Jones said his neighbors live in a “modern house” which he described as a “cross between Versailles and Chessington World of Adventure”.
He added: “We like old property, we believe in wildlife, we like attracting bees and butterflies, but we like the suburban parochial municipal park look.
“The more you get into suburbia, the more people think that everyone should think and behave the same.”
Edwards told MailOnline: “I’m not prepared to comment.”
When given a summary of what Mr Atkinson-Jones had said, Mr Edwards said there were “inaccuracies” but declined to clarify.
