Cockerels ruffle a few feathers in ex-mining community

FOR country dwellers the early-morning noise of cockerels has been a part of rural life for centuries.

In Hemsworth, a semi-rural former mining community near Wakefield, the tradition of keeping cockerels on allotments goes back several decades, if not longer.

But the noisy birds have apparently ruffled a few feathers among local residents, at least one of whom has complained about sleepless nights to the local town council.

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The complaint was taken seriously and the council banned cockerels from allotments, issuing eviction notices to those who ignored the letters.

So far, no evictions have taken place but allotment holders at the Grove Lane site are living in fear of losing plots of land that some have tended for up to 50 years.

Now a 1,000-name “Save our Cockerels” petition is circulating and opponents of the ban, including five independent councillors, have called a special meeting of the council.

Both parties have been consulting lawyers to try to get a definitive answer on the cockerel conundrum.

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The town council says that hens are okay to keep but noisy cockerels must go.

Allotment holders fighting the ban include former miners who braved the picket lines in the 1984-85 strike and are not the kind of men to fold in the face of pressure.

Cockerel owner Stan Wilson, an independent councillor, is one of those who are holding firm and is refusing to get rid of Bert, the two-year-old cockerel he reared from a chick.

“I think what they are trying to do is frighten people,” he claimed.

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“I am petrified of losing my allotment – I am retired and I love it. Keeping cockerels is just a bit
of pleasure. Bert is like a pet to me.

“I have been laughing about it and everybody has been talking about it and saying ‘don’t get shut of them – there’s nowt wrong with the cockerels.”

Some of the older allotment holders cannot understand why cockerels are suddenly so out of favour.

Retired miner Ian Ford, 74, who has an allotment full of veg and some noisy geese but no cockerels, said: “If you don’t have cockerels you don’t get fertilised eggs and so you don’t get chickens. It’s part of a natural process.

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“During the war they encouraged the breeding of cockerels; you could breed them in your back yard.”

The secretary of the Grove Lane Allotment Association, ex-miner Johnny Greenshield, 65, called the cockerel ban “stupid” and blamed residents of some newly-built homes for kicking up a stink about the noise.

“If you buy a house next to a church or a railway line, you
can’t really complain about the noise. They should put up or shut up.”

Another fan of cockerels, Jack Bashforth, 64, also a former miner, said: “One person has complained but these allotments have been here 150 years – the council won’t even negotiate.

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“The old blokes on the allotments want peace and quiet, they don’t need this. Cockerels are loud but they are not 80 decibels and are no louder than a passing car.

“The letters and warnings from the council has been frightening some of the old blokes to death. At their time of life they want peace and quiet.”

He claimed the council’s methods amounted to “bully-boy tactics”.

The chairman of Hemsworth Town Council, Tony Upson, defended the ban and the eviction notices, saying that cockerels were banned from allotments by the Allotment Act 1950 – but this is disputed by others.

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Coun Upson said cockerel owners had been given three months to comply with the ban and only one person had not complied.

“At the end of the day, is it fair to have your sleep broken from 4am by cockerels? Is it people or poultry that come first?

“One tenant told me he had been responsible for removing 50 cockerels from the site; people had brought them to him. That tells you the extent of the problem. I don’t know if any are left on the site but we have not had any complaints in the last few days.”

Coun Upson said the cockerel ban applied to all council allotments in the Hemsworth area but he said the Grove Lane site was the “only one having problems”.

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He said that Hemsworth had changed from being a small village into a town and that “times change”.

“What I can’t understand, to put it bluntly, is why people want to inflict this noise nuisance on others. We should all live together.”

Asked how many people had complained about the cockerels, he said it was “more than one”.

He rejected claims by several allotment holders that the town council was eyeing up the land for development.

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“I can categorically squash that one. There are no plans whatsoever for the sale of Grove Lane or any other allotments. We have spent £100,000 upgrading all our allotments.

“We are standing firm (on the cockerel ban) til somebody can tell us we are wrong.”

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