AN APPEAL for assistance has been made after church efforts to retrieve a dead pigeon were met with failure – five weeks after it was spotted.

Barry Waterfront resident Clive Harris said the sight of the strangled bird hanging by its neck from the top of the Tabernacle Welsh Congregational Chapel, in Holton Road, Barry, was causing passers-by distress.

Mr Harris, 59, said he had contacted the church, the RSPCA, RSPB and the Vale council, but they had been unable to help.

“It’s terrible,” he said. “I’ve been looking at it for weeks and it’s making me feel a little ill. I just want someone to get up there, take it down with a pole and bury it.”

Church treasurer, Heulwen Cooper said the pigeon had got caught in some strong cord that was put along all the windowsills when the church was redecorated around 30 or 40 years ago.

“The cord was placed there in order to prevent the pigeons from landing and roosting on our windowsills. The dead bird was spotted by a passer-by about the beginning of March, who called the RSPCA and the fire service to remove it. As the bird was quite obviously dead they refused to do anything. It is on a corner of the church near the roof. It would need an extending ladder with three sections to reach it and is far too high for health and safety to allow this. We could call somebody to erect a scaffold but this is likely to cost several hundred pounds to erect.

“We’ve had the occasional pigeon enter the building when we had a missing couple of slates, following a big storm. They now sit on the window-sills once more as several are now available and their droppings cause us quite a hazard as they drop on steps making the steps rather slippery apart from the unpleasant appearance.”

She added: “I can think of no solution other than asking for scaffolding to be placed there so that the unfortunate creature can be removed. Maybe we could set up an appeal for funding to do this?”