ONE of Brighton’s most historic areas is under attack from thousands of starlings.

Residents living around Regency Square are facing a daily bombardment of droppings from about 1,000 birds. Carefully tended gardens and ornaments are being destroyed while cars are covered in the muck from a “splinter group” which is roosting in the area.

Experts said the droppings were a health hazard.

The chairman of the Regency Square Area Society, Roger Hinton, is calling on Brighton and Hove City Council to help.

He said: “Every evening they come back and deposit their droppings.

“Some people have been hit.

These starlings used to live in the West Pier before the theatre was burnt down.”

Aron Barnes, tenant of the nearby Regency Tavern pub, said: “All the buildings, cars and pavements are covered.”

The sight of thousands of birds swirling around is one of the city’s most iconic. But it comes at a price.

The problem has been caused by a splinter flock of about 1,000 starlings roosting overnight in ivy growing on the north wall of the Metropole Exhibition Halls in Queensbury Mews.

Resident Gill Wales’ garden has borne the brunt of the droppings, known as guano.

The 53-year-old market researcher said: “I like to look at the starlings but I wish they would wear incontinence pants because we are drowning in guano.”

She called in bird control specialists Clean Dimensions, run by John ‘the birdman’ Butler.

Mr Butler, who has been in the business for 20 years, said the mess was the worst he had seen.

He said: “Pigeon poo is more toxic and dangerous than starling muck but in this sort of quantity she could suffer from E. coli, salmonella, and lung diseases psittacosis and ornithosis, which are caused by the dust.”

He uses the sound of a distressed starling to scare the birds away but warned they would probably return. He also thinks removing ivy in the garden could discourage the birds.

The starlings will disappear in about four to five weeks at the start of the nesting season.

A spokesman for the RSPB said many of the Brighton flock, estimated at 40,000, would either return to mainland Europe, spread across the South Coast or head north in February.

He said: “They could return next year. The fact is it’s a good roosting site.”

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said: “The council has no statutory responsibility for dealing with bird complaints. Wildlife and countryside legislation protects all wild birds.

“Our environmental health department can offer advice to dissuade birds – for instance putting up taut wires or vertical spikes along roof ridges, ledges and chimney stacks.”

The British population of starlings has declined by two thirds since the 1970s and the bird is listed as a species of conservation concern.