ACTION is being taken to curb the amount of pigeon mess being left outside a Halstead shop.

The former Lalezar building, in High Street, has become a mecca for pigeons which sit on the various ledges at the front of the shop.

However, this has led to the building and the pavement below it becoming covered in their mess.

Gordon Birchell, of Birchell Steel Consultant Surveyors, which is marketing the empty building for let, said: "They are doing what pigeons do.

"We have put up the scaffolding to do something about it.

"The pigeons are everywhere in Halstead and they are an awful problem."

Complaints about the mess outside the building were first made in November, with Braintree Council's Street Scene Team promising to clean up the pavement.

He added that he was in negotiations with a company interested in moving into the ground floor, but declined to say what the company was.

"It isn't a restaurant, but it is catering related," he said.

Charity shop St Helena Hospice, opposite the restaurant, was due to move into the building this year, but pulled out after deciding the costs involved were too high.

The building, formerly a post office, was built in November 1895 and has changed hands many times in recent years.

Lalezar opened in May 2014 before closing at the start of 2015 following a gas leak and the building has been vacant ever since.

Mr Birchell said he was confident the former Thomas Cook shop, further down High Street, would also soon be occupied.

The shop had been empty for two years before being bought at auction by a London-based investor for £150,000.

The investor had planned to use the building himself, but is now planning to rent it out, according to Mr Birchell.

He said that it was "just about under offer".