Animal rights campaigner Carla Lane has called on Ken Livingstone to rethink efforts to stop people feeding Trafalgar Square's pigeons.

The London mayor wants to clean up the central London tourist spot and make it somewhere people can sit in peace and quiet.

There are also concerns about the spread of disease from birds. The Greater London Authority last week evicted Bernard Rayner, the last feed seller there.

His family has had a pitch selling corn to feed to the birds for more than 50 years.

Ms Lane, writer of TV sitcoms such as The Liver Birds and Bread, said: "The problem with politicians is that they do not understand how much people love feeding the pigeons.

"This practice has been going on for decades and people come from abroad just to do it. There are already enough places in London to sit in quiet."

Ms Lane, of Horsted Keynes, said feeding pigeons also helped to educate children to care for animals.

She said: "For many children the pigeons are the first contact they have with animals.

"If a pigeon lands on a child's shoulder it will paint a good picture in their mind and show them that all animals are worth caring for."

The number of pigeons in British towns and cities is estimated to have doubled in the last five years.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 visit Trafalgar Square to feed. It costs £100,000 a year to clean a ton of pigeon droppings from Nelson's Column and the surrounding area in the square.