A PITSEA woman has spoken of her shock after she and her husband became victims of a Basildon Council enforcement officer who has issued them with a fine for feeding chips to seagulls.

The issuing of the penalty notice was captured on video by Sandra Williams after she and her husband visited the Pipps Hill Retail Park.

Mrs Williams has told Basildon Nub News what happened, saying: "I went shopping at Asda and I left my husband in the car as he has been shielding since March last year. I myself am disabled and also clinically vulnerable.

"When I came out of Asda we decided to pick up a bit of lunch from Burger King and then parked in the centre of the car park so we were well away from all other vehicles and people to enable my husband and myself to eat our food safely.

"The area we were at is an area where there are known to be many birds, who have, for years been fed chips etc and this was no different as we noticed a vast amount of various birds flying around, clearly looking for food.

"We were sitting in our own vehicle, several vehicle lengths away from other vehicles. Since we were eating we obviously did not have any PPE on! My husband decided to throw out six chips which the birds immediately swooped onto and ate, within a matter of five to 10 seconds.

"In fact a couple of the chips were eaten by the birds before they had had the chance to reach the floor.

"Suddenly two Basildon Council employees swooped on our vehicle, this was within the time that the birds had finished the last chip (approximately 10 seconds after throwing out the first chip) and the birds were still looking for more food as can clearly be seen in the video.

"I can honestly say that the officer in question didn't ask us to pick up the 'offending items', but then he couldn't because there were no offending items – the chips had already been eaten. And as previously stated some of which hadn't even reached the ground!

"One of the two individuals (only one was doing the talking the other one stood well back) stated that he had witnessed us dropping litter, which is illegal in Basildon (I agree that littering is illegal, not only in Basildon but UK wide). There was no paper, wrappings etc dropped, only six chips!

"My husband replied that he was feeding the birds, to which the individual stated that it is illegal to feed birds in Basildon, which he repeated a few times!

"My husband asked if he was joking and asked 'since when can't you feed birds in Basildon?' and he replied he wasn't joking and that he wanted my husband's details.

"My husband asked 'What for, surely you are not going to fine me?' and he replied 'yep a fixed penalty.

"I said, this is stupid and went to drive off, which the individual stated would make it worse so I decided to stay and record my own recording.

"At this stage I said to the individual to step back as he wasn't socially distancing and he replied: 'I am wearing a mask and gloves so it don't matter'.

"The gloves he was wearing, for the record, you could see he had been wearing for some time as they were dirty, therefore he had clearly been in contact with other persons/property/items which could result in him transferring Covid-19 to whomever he meets throughout the day!

"He then attempted to hand my husband a fixed penalty notice, he was still wearing the dirty gloves. My husband had to take the fixed penalty notice from the individual, whereby he (my husband) is now at risk. My husband is very worried now as he has been very careful, and shielding, for the last 10 months, only to have his social distancing space impinged by this individual despite asking him to step back.

"This is not acceptable! I would like the council to look at this issue and get it cancelled

"In my opinion we did not leave any litter and there are no signs or notification that feedings birds is illegal. To us this is clearly an abuse of authority and not what the legislation regarding littering is about."

Basildon Nub News has contacted the council about this issue and offered the opportunity to comment but other than acknowledging receipt of our query nothing has as yet been received back.