16050/6A woman blamed for worsening the pigeon problem in Trowbridge has been caught on camera feeding the birds, despite the threat she could be taken to court.

Danuta Rogova, of Langford Road, was snapped by the Wiltshire Times as she fed the birds out of a Tesco carrier bag.

The town council has asked Mrs Rogova to stop feeding the birds and has asked West Wiltshire District Council to take legal action against people who feed them.

Town clerk Doug Ross said: "We haven't been able to do anything to persuade this lady and others to actually stop feeding them and the feeling is that we would be unsuccessful in tackling it legally.

"However West Wiltshire District Council will take action against her if there is no other option."

The council has been trying to solve the problem of the huge number of pigeons in the town for over four years.

It has even asked supermarkets, including Tesco, to stop selling bread to the woman but the supermarket had to abandon that policy after a staff member refused to serve a different woman by mistake.

The birds are believed to have caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage in the town. A cull proposed in 2000 caused an outcry from animal rights campaigners but other methods of trying to control the bird population have failed.

The council has employed street cleaners to try to remove the food source from the birds and considered solutions ranging from setting up roosting areas outside the town centre to introducing birth control.

An action plan has been drawn up between the town and district councils and pigeon advisory service, PICAS, but the relationship between the three organisations hit a stumbling block last week when Guy Merchant from PICAS refused to deal with the town council.

At a meeting held on Tuesday Cllr Tom James said: "As far as we are concerned we are working to the plan that has been agreed with PICAS and partners, nothing has changed from the town council's point of view."

Mrs Rogova, who is Polish, was approached but unable to comment.