A CLAYTON-le-Moors man who claims flocks of pigeons resembling Hitchcock's Birds are making his life a misery has pleaded with neighbours to 'show some respect'.

The council has written to residents, asking them not to feed the pigeons, which have nested on a dilapidated property on Barnes Street.

The house, whose windows were boarded up in March when a large pane of glass dropped onto the pavement, has been labelled 'the town's worst problem property.'

But Bernard Walmsley, who lives two doors down from the house, says people are still feeding the birds, which he regards as "rats with wings".

Mr Walmsley, who has lived on the street for 30 years, said: "The pigeons are nesting there because the roofing slates are out at the back. Early in the morning you see them on the rooftops on the opposite side of me and on my side.

"The noise on my roof and the noise 100 pigeons make swooping down to feed is nerve-racking because you are wakened suddenly from your sleep."

The pigeons are nesting near to a back yard which is full of fly-tipped rubbish, a possible source of further vermin.

Neighbour Lisa Wood said: "It's disgusting round the back, there's a chair and rubbish there which is going to attract rats."

Another neighbour said: "The pigeons sit on my gutter and wake us up in the morning. They're always walking around the road."

Mr Walmsley added: "There's no respect from anybody who's feeding them after the letter has gone out. They're just contributing to the vermin. They're becoming more of a problem than the rats."