A dying woman is being taken to court in an effort to stop her feeding pigeons.

Brighton and Hove City Council is taking legal action against Margaret Waite, 56, to ban her from scattering crumbs for the birds outside her home in Whitehawk, Brighton.

Council workers were called in by neighbours who complained the pigeons were making a mess and threatening people's health.

But Mrs Waite, who has been given less than five years to live after being diagnosed with emphysema, said: "I just love them."

She said feeding birds outside her flat in Swanborough Place was her only daily pleasure.

Ms Waite, who also has blood clots in her legs and needs to take 25 different tablets every day, said: "When they said I was terminally ill, I thought, 'what can I do?'

"It was a bit of a shock. For an unknown reason I fell in love with the pigeons and I started putting feed out."

At first the council asked her to stop feeding the birds in the car park near her flat so she moved to a nearby grass area.

Then officers requested she cut back from three bread-crumb sessions a day to two, which she said she had agreed to.

Even so, the number of pigeons which flock to the area has doubled to more than 50 each time.

Mrs Waite said she was shocked at her neighbours' reaction to the birds.

She said she had been verbally and physically abused and nicknamed the "mad bird woman".

She said some neighbours had taken to throwing things at the birds to scare them away.

Now she has to place the food on the ground because she said the birds were too scared to take from her hands.

Mrs Waite said: "I would die for the pigeons. No one has the right to hurt any animals.

"The poor pigeons can't live off berries. They can only eat morsels from what human beings have left behind. They can't survive on their own. I feel sorry for them."

Mrs Waite said she had offered to cut the number of feeds to one a day and cut down the amount of food she gave them.

"I will lose my therapy but I can't have it all my own way."

No one from the city council was available to comment before the outcome of the case is decided at the county court in Brighton on Monday.