URGENT: Stop Barclays from trapping birds in netting

Why choose cruelty over compassion? Barclays’ bird-netting plan in Norwich must be stopped

Barclays has submitted an application to install bird netting on the listed building at 5–7 Red Lion Street, Norwich (Reference: 25/01049/F). It’s being presented as a simple, practical way to deter roosting. But bird netting isn’t a neutral fix. When used on buildings, especially at height, it carries a well-documented risk of birds becoming trapped, injured, or dying slowly out of sight. That risk matters because it affects wildlife that’s already trying to survive in a dense urban environment.

And there’s a time-critical step we can take right now: we only have today, a matter of hours, to sign the petition objecting to this proposal. If you’re able to support it, please do so before the deadline closes. Every signature helps show the Council that people in Norwich want humane, responsible solutions, not measures that create preventable harm.

Bird netting is not a deterrent. It is a death trap.

Bird netting is often marketed as a neat, discreet deterrent, but in practice it can be a death trap. Birds regularly become trapped behind or tangled in it, panic as they try to escape, and may die slowly from injury, starvation, or dehydration. This is why netting is widely recognised as a high-risk exclusion method, especially when installed at height where constant inspection isn’t realistic.

And it isn’t just “for pigeons.” Netting is indiscriminate: it can trap any bird looking to roost, shelter, or nest. In a dense city like Norwich, where birds are already squeezed into fewer safe spaces, sealing off refuges with a system that can trap and kill is not proportionate management, it’s punishment for wildlife trying to survive.

Live pigeon trapped in netting, credit: Humane Wildlife Solutions.

Barclays is not a helpless applicant. This is a choice.

Let’s not pretend otherwise. Barclays is one of the biggest banks on Earth. They do not get to claim ignorance. They do not get to say they had no other option.

Humane, proven alternatives exist. Specialist humane wildlife practitioners exist.
Building-sensitive deterrents exist.

So the question is simple:

If kinder options are available right now, why choose this?
Why choose cruelty over compassion?

A live pigeon is tapped in netting.

The legal reality: netting creates responsibility, risk, and liability.

Installing netting creates serious legal and conservation problems. Any bird trapped in it becomes Barclays’ responsibility, with duties under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to prevent suffering and rescue promptly. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 also protects wild birds and active nests, so netting that blocks nest sites or traps birds in breeding season risks unlawful harm. At this height, rapid rescue and continuous inspection are hard to guarantee, increasing both welfare and legal risk.

It is also unsuitable for a listed building. Netting requires fixings and tension points drilled or bonded into historic masonry, and because birds may need releasing, sections would likely be disturbed and refitted repeatedly. That ongoing intervention raises the risk of cumulative damage and visual harm to the building’s character — the opposite of sensitive heritage management.

Dead baby pigeon, credit: HWS

What you can do right now

Object to Planning Application 25/01049/F. Keep it simple: netting risks trapping birds, humane alternatives exist, and a listed building deserves sensitive, non-cruel management.

Email: planning@norwich.gov.uk

Because once it’s installed, the suffering will be quiet. Hidden behind mesh. Out of sight. But no less real.

Object. Share. Tell others to object.

Let’s make this the moment Norwich chooses compassion over cruelty, loudly, together, and without apology.

This isn’t just about one building, either. Protect the Wild is starting a wider campaign against bird netting altogether, to stop this suffering once and for all, especially when kinder, effective alternatives already exist. If you’ve seen netting cause harm, have photos, case studies, or local examples, please send evidence in. It all helps build the case for change.

To contribute, look up and submit any evidence to Humane Wildlife Solutions at:
info@humanewildlifesolutions.co.uk