Mating peacocks spark mayhem in peaceful County Durham village

Mating peacocks have been "causing mayhem" with all night noise and attacks on cars in an otherwise sleepy village in County Durham.

The people of Ushaw Moor say as many as 30 peacocks and peahens have been scratching the paint work on cars with their claws and beaks when they see their reflections and fouling the streets as they roam wild.

Things in the former pit village - home to more than 4,000 people - have become so bad that local resident Graham Bridge has started a petition on change.org to demand authorities take action.

Mr Bridge is self-employed in financial services, and has to put up with the birds screeching all day long when he is trying to work at home.

After six years residents have had enough of the birds and the petition has more than 100 signatures calling on Durham County Council's environmental health department to act.

The birds also sit on roofs calling out to each other at night.

Mr Bridge said: “Sleep to me is the number-one nuisance, to a degree you can live with the other things.”

Describing the muck the birds leave, which usually ends up being trodden around the resident’s homes, he said: “It is evil stuff. When it's soft it is flipping awkward to get out of anything. The best method is to let it dry but you wouldn't want to do that.”

He said the birds also made a mess of their cars as they attacked their reflections so aggressively they sometimes left blood on the paint work.

“It's ridiculous,” he said.

It is unknown exactly how many of the birds are in the village. Mr Bridge estimates around 30 - and said a neighbour once found 13 of them sitting on his decking.

Joanne Waller, head of environment, health and consumer protection at Durham County Council, said: “We have received complaints about noise from peacocks in Ushaw Moor and we are currently investigating to determine whether they create a statutory noise nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.”

Press Association contributed to this report