A terminally ill woman facing eviction for feeding pigeons outside her flat says she will starve herself to death if forced to stop.

Margaret Waite, 58, must stop scattering crumbs for the birds by midnight tonight or she will be kicked out of her home.

Brighton County Court made the order on October 6, two years after Brighton and Hove City Council started legal action against her.

Council workers were called in by neighbours who complained the pigeons were making a mess and threatening people's health.

But Mrs Waite, who has emphysema and has been given less than a year to live, said: "If they can't eat then I won't eat.

"I can't see any difference between an animal and me. I have got nothing to live for so I might as well die now."

Mrs Waite began feeding the birds outside her flat in Swanborough Place, Brighton, five years ago after she was diagnosed as terminally ill.

When neighbours complained council officers asked her to cut down from three breadcrumb sessions a day to two.

Even so, the number of pigeons flocking to the area doubled to more than 50 each time.

Mrs Waite claimed she had been verbally and physically abused by her neighbours and nicknamed the "mad bird woman".

A spokesman for the council said Mrs Waite had been offered the choice of moving to a bungalow with a garden where she could carry out limited bird feeding but she declined.

Mrs Waite continued: "I look out of the window and see my babies sitting out on the rail.

"Some will go away and survive but the ones that have been with me for five years won't."

The council spokesman added: "It was the residents who complained about Mrs Waite and a court that said she should stop feeding pigeons.

"So it's not really for the council to comment on her threat to harm herself.

"We would advise her that no wild bird species is dependent on feeding by humans.

"They will simply eat elsewhere.

"So she need not worry about the pigeons and has no reason to punish herself."