PIGEON experts are to meet with council bosses to try to end the row over how to control numbers of the birds in Skipton.

Banner-waving protesters gathered outside Skipton Town Hall on Saturday to voice their opposition to plans to kill the birds.

Craven councillors approved a cull because of concerns over public health and the defacing of buildings. The cull could involve cage trapping and the use of poisons and narcotic baits.

But now environmental health officers have agreed to meet Guy Merchant, director of welfare charity the Pigeon Control Advisory Service (PCAS) who says building specially-designed dovecotes would be a more humane way of dealing with the birds.

Pigeons would be enticed to the nesting and feeding stations where their eggs could be removed to reduce the number of fledglings. People will be asked to use designated feeding areas near the dovecotes where the amount of food can be controlled.

This idea has already been tried successfully by councils in London and Worcestershire and by researchers in Switzerland.

Buildings should also be netted to prevent roosting and people should be discouraged from feeding pigeons.

Mr Merchant said: "The most effective way of dealing with the problem is to reduce the amount of feeding by the public. They have to be convinced that it is in the best interest of the pigeons in general.

"It is a humane and non-lethal way of dealing with them."

Skipton resident Kathy Musker donned a pigeon costume on Saturday to protest about the planned cull.

She told the Herald that more than 200 signatures against the idea had been collected in just 90 minutes. "The majority of people were sympathetic towards the pigeons and we only had one person who said they should be shot," she said.

Kathy intends to deliver the petition personally to the council before its meeting with Mr Merchant next week.