DON'T feed the birds - or it could cost you far more than tuppence a bag.

You may end up forking out £50 for an on-the-spot fine as Kirklees Council has vowed to get tough with people who feed the pigeons.

Fed-up officials say far too much food is being dropped. The hundreds of pigeons inhabiting the town's rooftops cannot get through it all.

This means rats and mice are moving in to devour all the leftovers.

Even a single chip thrown to the ground adds to the mounting problem.

Signs have now been put up at the main trouble spots - Macualay Street near Huddersfield Bus Station and New Street - urging people not to feed the pigeons and make sure all leftover food is put in waste bins.

The warning comes after a South Yorkshire couple were fined by council wardens for scattering winter feed for wild birds.

George and Janine Cooper were secretly filmed for four days as they made their `seed run' around the village of Kiveton Park near Rotherham.

They were fined £50 for dropping litter.

A similar fate awaits those who ignore the signs in Huddersfield.

Kirklees pest control and drainage manager, Maurice Turner, said: "The aim is not to reach a point where we don't see any pigeons at all in our town centres.

"Neither do we wish to stop people feeding wild birds at home.

"What we want to stop are those people who dump large amounts of bread or other food in public places.

"We do not wish to control the pigeon population by using less humane methods, such as culling or trapping, as this only provides short term results and pigeons simply continue to breed until the population increases again."

A Kirklees Council spokeswoman added: "Where there is an abundance of food wild pigeons will breed all year round, instead of the normal once or twice a year, which produces many more young.

"The resulting over population leads to pigeons living in stressful, overcrowded and dirty conditions that can lead to disease and death.

"Feeding wild pigeons is also detrimental to their health as bread and waste food often lacks essential nutrients resulting in pigeons in poor condition with mites and other parasites which spread in overcrowded conditions."

The signs were put up in response to complaints about the large numbers of pigeons in both Huddersfield and Dewsbury town centres.

Clr Ann Denham - Kirklees cabinet member with responsibility for the environment - said both the public and town centre businesses had a part to play in making sure half-eaten food is properly thrown away.

"We are appealing to the public to help by disposing of unwanted food and food containers responsibly and by not deliberately feeding wild pigeons," she said.

"Businesses - especially food businesses - can help by properly containing and disposing of their waste.

"We will play our part by providing and emptying litter bins and ensuring regular collections of refuse.

"Reducing the amount of food available to wild pigeons is the natural way to effectively and humanely control the pigeon population.

"If we do not feed them they will not starve, but fly away from urban areas to look out for more natural foods."

* Comic Woody Allen described them as "rats with wings"

* More than 40 diseases can be passed from feral pigeons to humans

* A big explosion in their numbers since the 1960s has been blamed in part on the growth of fast food outlets

* They can fly at speeds approaching a mile a minute

* More than 500,000 racing pigeons were signed up to deliver messages in the two World Wars.