AS far as deterrents go it doesn’t look as though hanging a wooden bird from a wire was exactly effective.

Believe it or not, this photograph shows Blackburn town centre’s official ‘bird scarer’ in action in 1987.

Shoppers had complained about the number of pigeons in the shopping centre and this had been seen as the solution to the problem. It wasn’t exactly hi-tech one with the bird suspended above Victoria Square but clearly, judging by the number of pigeons watching this strange contraption, it was hardly the most menacing sight.