A woman has been left furious after receiving a £120 fine from Manchester City Council for feeding pigeons in Piccadilly Gardens last Sunday.
Kerris Fenn, a 22-year-old customer support executive from Cardiff who was visiting her brother in Manchester for the weekend, was handed the fine under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for “littering, namely food waste” after feeding pigeons part of the Greggs Vegan Sausage Roll she was eating.
Speaking to the MEN, Kerris explained that she had had ripped the end of the pastry into “tiny pieces” to feed a small group of birds as she thought they looked “quite sweet”, but was left shocked when enforcement officers from 3GS – on behalf of the council – handed her a £150 fine, which would be reduced to £120 if paid it within ten days.
Manchester City Council has defended the fine stating that “feeding the pigeons is littering, plain and simple”.
Explaining the chain of events from Sunday 26th July, Kerris said: “I was sat in Piccadilly Gardens [and] I had walked over from the Arndale Centre. I was eating a Greggs Sausage Roll. It was less than a mouthful left [and the pigeons] had gathered around [which] I thought it was quite sweet.”
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“I just really like animals, I’m a vegan”.
“I ripped [the sausage roll] into tiny pieces [and] I tried feeding the crumbs to them. It was just a small group, not flocks and flocks,” she said.
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Greggs
Enforcement officers then came over and “demanded her ID”.
She continued: “They charged me £120 for littering [but] it would have been more than £150 if I left it more than 10 days. It’s outrageous. It’s crazy to treat me the same as someone who throws litter on the floor. I contacted the council and explained ‘this is crazy’ [and] said ‘if you told me, I would have stopped’. I was shocked.”
“It’s the most expensive lunch ever.”
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“I’m not going back [to Piccadilly Gardens], definitely not. I can’t believe it. I’m still angry about it. It’s upsetting how shocking it was, and how embarrassing it was in front of so many people”.
Addressing the charge, Councillor Rabnawaz Akbar – Executive Member for Neighbourhoods at Manchester City Council – said: “Feeding the pigeons is littering, plain and simple. Clear signs are in place in Piccadilly Gardens to advertise this fact [and] while we take no pleasure in handing out Fixed Penalty Notices to offenders, it’s extremely important that people understand that they should not be feeding the birds in this way.”
“Illegally dropping food for the pigeons is bad for the local environment and can also be harmful to the birds, as many items intended for human consumption are not suitable for them to eat.”
Kerris confirmed that she tried to appeal, but said that Manchester City Council stated she “would have to wait until my case proceeds to court”.
She chose to pay the £120 fine in order to prevent it from increasing.
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Tesco shoppers urged to use up £16.5m-worth of Clubcard vouchers before they expire this month
Emily Sergeant
Tesco is urging Clubcard members to check if they have any vouchers that need to be used up, as millions are set to expire at the end of this month.
Clubcard Vouchers, which are always valid for two years from issue, need to be exchanged before the clock strikes midnight on the last day of this month (30 November), and can go towards everything from the cost of the weekly shop, to pay for fuel, or to pick up a new Tesco Mobile deal.
What’s more is that shoppers can also exchange the remaining vouchers for double their value too -with more than 100 Clubcard reward partners.
You can even take advantage of some all-new reward partner deals as well.
These include the new ‘Tesco Tuesdays’ offer with Cineworld, giving Clubcard members the chance to get cinema tickets for Tuesday showings for just £5 (£2.50 in Clubcard Vouchers), and the amazing new triple value voucher offer with PizzaExpress, meaning £10 of Tesco Clubcard vouchers can be redeemed for a code for £30-off food at the popular pizza chain.
According to Tesco’s stats, if the soon-to-be expired vouchers were all used for ‘Tesco Tuesdays’, it would be enough to get 6.6 million cinema tickets at Cineworld, and if they were exchanged at PizzaExpress, they could secure a whopping £49.5 million of reward codes.
Clubcard members can earn Clubcard points in a variety of ways, including using their Clubcard when they shop or purchase fuel at Tesco, or when they charge electric vehicles at Pod charging facilities at Tesco stores.
Today, it’s believed that more than 24 million UK households have a Tesco Clubcard.
“We don’t want anyone to miss out on making the most of their Tesco Clubcard Vouchers, and with some great new offers with Clubcard Rewards this really is a great time to use those vouchers up,” commented Shama Wilson, who is the Tesco Group Membership and Loyalty Director.
“So it really is worth checking in the Tesco app to see if you have any vouchers expiring.”
Featured Image – Tesco
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Bongo’s Bingo is hosting a series of special ‘Christmas Cracker’ and New Year’s shows
Danny Jones
Britain’s beloved Bongo’s Bingo is hosting a series of massive end-of-season specials to ring in the new year, announcing a number of their famous ‘Christmas Cracker’ and festive parties.
They’re also holding a ‘Big Fat Bingo of the Year’ (we don’t see any trademark issues whatsoever…), including one for NYE.
As one of the best nights out, not just in the North but in the country, they’re hoping to send you into 2026 singing, dancing, laughing, and hopefully with some lasting memories and maybe a prize or two.
Confirming the latest raft of shows starting this month, you can expect all the usual Bongo’s madness and more, plus all the bells and whistles, as well as plenty of tinsel and holiday cheer.
We’d love a new hoover for Christmas, to be fair. (Credit: Press shot)
Returning to Albert Hall as it regularly does throughout the rest of the calendar, Bongo’s Bingo is promising to give Manchester a Christmas and New Year’s period they’ll never forget.
As they put it, the hosts will be “transporting everyone back to the time when coloured tree lights and flammable tinsel ruled supreme, because the halcyon days of turkey with all the trimmings, mini bottles of Babycham and not a naughty elf in sight are BACK big time at Bongo’s Bingo.”
Bloomin’ ‘eck, they don’t half know how to get a crowd fired up even before they’re in the room, do they?
Set to deliver all the best festive tunes, “dodgy Santa Clauses” – their words, not ours – as well as plenty of foil hats fresh from the Christmas cracker, they’ll be partying with us Mancs multiple times throughout December, not to mention a bonus show at the end of November as we fully swap autumn for winter.
As for the ‘Twixmas’/’Christmas gooch’ period (again, not our words…), the format will then switch to the Big Fat Bingo of the Year, with quiz elements featuring all the biggest memes, tunes and cultural moments of 2025.
You can see the full list of Bongo’s Bingo festive dates for 2025 down below:
Bongo’s Bingo Christmas Cracker and Big Fat Bingo of the Year dates
Christmas Cracker
November – Fri, 28
December – Sat 6 Dec (day and night), Sat 20 Dec, Sun 21 (day), Mon 22 and Tues 23
Big Fat Bingo Of The Year
Sat, 27 Dec (day and night), Sun 28 (day) and NYE 2025
If you’re interested in booking onto Bongo’s Bingo this Christmas and/or New Year’s, you can find out more information and grab your tickets right HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
4th August 2020 
