RESIDENTS of a sheltered housing complex say their lives are being made a misery by a priest who refuses to stop feeding hundreds of pigeons outside their homes.

They claim they have been dive-bombed by the flock, cannot hang washing out to dry and constantly have to clean their cars.

One hundred people living in Carluke Street, Bentley Street, Ferrier Court and Ferrier Close, Blackburn, have complained to the council.

Joyce Sandford, 72, of Ferrier Close, said: “It’s like something out of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

"You’ll be sitting in your living room and all of a sudden it’ll go dark.

“You think ‘what on earth is that?’ and then you realise its all the hundreds of birds swooping and circling around outside.

“They dive bomb you when you go outside.”

Local councillor James Shorrock said: “With respect to religion, these aren’t white doves coming down from heaven, they are vermin carrying disease.

"Pigeons cause a lot of damage to public buildings and areas and I fully support what the residents are trying to do.”

Father Paul Taylor, the priest at St Teresa’s Church, has now agreed with the council for them to be gradually removed and be rereleased into the wild.

He said he had been looking after the birds since he came to the church 10 years ago, adding the issue had only surfaced in the last two years.

“Pigeons are God’s creatures as well and I get enjoyment from feeding them,” he said.

“There are quite a number of them, animals being animals – they breed.

"It’s an ongoing issue that’s being dealt with by the local authority and it is a situation which we are trying to sort out humanely.”