By Andy Dolan for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:44 EDT, 11 August 2022 | Updated: 20:51 EDT, 11 August 2022

A council that fitted solar panels on thousands of homes to meet green targets is having to spend more than £360,000 on wire mesh to deter pigeons.

Nottingham City Council received more than 300 complaints from its tenants about birds nesting under the panels.

As well as being a noise nuisance, the pigeons caused leaking roofs and blocked the gutters, while their droppings are considered hazardous to human health. The dung can also reduce the amount of sunlight captured by the panels.

The Labour-run authority had to seek permission to spend £362,664 on the anti-pigeon meshes for old and new panels because it has been monitored by a government-appointed panel since 2020.

Nottingham City Council received more than 300 complaints from its tenants about birds nesting under the panels

As well as being a noise nuisance, the pigeons caused leaking roofs and blocked the gutters, while their droppings are considered hazardous to human health. The dung can also reduce the amount of sunlight captured by the panels

This followed the failure of a not-for-profit energy company set up by the council, which cost taxpayers £38million.

Earlier this year, an investigation found £24million of ring-fenced housing rent revenue could have been wrongly spent on projects other than housing – on top of nearly £16million of housing revenue account funds previously discovered to have been ‘unlawfully’ spent.

The solar panels scheme was intended for low-income residents and was funded with millions in central government grants.

The council has fitted more than 3,000 panels on tenants’ roofs as part of its efforts to become the UK’s first carbon-neutral city by 2028 and said birds nesting under them was a common problem.

‘A common issue that has come to light with these solar panels is birds nesting under the array,’ a council spokesman said.

‘This has led to many issues including resident complaints, blocked gutters, damaged tiles, leaking roofs, unwanted noise nuisance and the build-up of guano (droppings) that is classed as hazardous to people’s health.’

In June the government said it was ‘minded’ to bring in commissioners to help run the council for the next two years.

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline?

Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual.

Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline?

Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual

We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook.

You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group