NETTING at a Hereford bridge has been replaced after pigeons kept getting trapped.

Andrea Crowe from Waterfield Road in Newton Farm said she regularly spotted the birds getting trapped in netting at the bridge on Belmont Road near to the Hunderton turn.

The 52-year-old said: "It happens regularly. They get tangled up in this netting. I called the RSPCA last year and they attended and removed a pigeon but it had to be put to sleep."

She said she recently saw two birds tangled within the fabric under the bridge and called the RSPCA but by the time they had attended the pigeons had died.

Mrs Crowe said: "The problem is that the netting hasn't been maintained. They get in there and get trapped."

A Herefordshire Council spokesman said: “Our maintenance team attended the bridge passing over Belmont Road on Friday (16 March) to repair the netting. We have opened it up temporarily to allow the pigeons to escape and we plan to re-install the netting with a smaller mesh to deter the pigeons from forcing their way through.

“The netting needs to be in place to prevent pigeons nesting on the bridge as their mess can be a hazard to the pedestrians using the footways below.”