A NOISY cockerel is to feature on television later this year after City of York Council’s noise enforcement team was chosen to be part of a BBC documentary.

Caesar, named after chicken Caesar salad, is one of two cockerels that were owned by Victoria Herbert, who keeps chickens and grows her own vegetables in the premises of her semi-detached house in Lavender Grove, off Poppleton Road.

The council’s noise enforcement team visited Victoria, with camera crew in tow, after a neighbour complained about a cockerel’s early morning crowing.

Victoria has since rehoused her noisiest cockerel to a home in the countryside, but now Caesar, pictured, is top of the pecking order, he’s started crowing too.

Victoria hopes she will be able to keep Caesar, having blocked the sunlight out of the coop to keep him from crowing until later in the morning. “We’re halfway through the year and the mornings will get darker soon so the crowing will become later.”

She said she had checked with her closest neighbours before she got the chickens, who find the noise pleasant and like to watch the chickens.

Victoria welcomes children from the street to see the chickens and delivers eggs to most people on the street, which she trades for fresh vegetables from other people’s gardens and allotments.

She said: “The area we live in is right next to the railway and trains go past all night every night. You can feel it shake the house. There’s also the fire station at the end of the road so there’s also a lot of sirens.”

Noise complaints in York are being filmed by Lion TV on behalf of the BBC for a documentary series which will air in September or October.

Michael Southcombe, environmental protection manager for City of York Council, said the programme will compare York’s issues with those of the inner-city London borough of Westminster and Belfast.

He said: “Some people have been very positive about it and some people don’t want to be filmed, for example if they live next door to intimidating neighbours. There have been some positive results where as a result people have got to know their neighbours and speak to them like they’ve never done before.”