BUILDING work in Horley has had to be suspended due to nesting birds.
Raven Housing Trust had intended to install uPVC soffits around some of its properties, but has been forced to cut the work short after being notified swifts are using the buildings' eaves to nest within the roofs.
Unfortunately, some residents in homes in Chequers Drive, where the work has been taking place, believe a few of the birds have already been trapped inside.
Resident Vera White told the Mirror she will not allow the work to be done at all on her home.
She said: "I have been here for 62 years and we have never had trouble before. I strongly object that they are going to do these things because those birds come all the way from Africa, they are only around this place in Horley. I really do object."
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is currently conducting a survey to assess swift nesting sites in the UK.
A spokesman said: "Swifts are now on the Amber List – they're birds of conservation concern. Their numbers have declined dramatically in the past ten years; we're not sure why, but one of the possible reasons is that their nest sites are being destroyed."
The website also describes sharing a house with the animals as "a great privilege" because they are quiet, do not get in the way and leave few droppings.
Resident Raymond Stowell, of Chequers Drive, said: "I have got them at the back of my house. It's the sign of the beginning of the summer. We all look forward to them coming."
Others have criticised Raven Housing Trust for even attempting the work during the birds' nesting season.
Chequers Drive resident Brian Hawes said: "If they are all to be displaced they are effectively denying the swifts one of the two nesting sites in Horley.
"They [Raven] should have done an environmental study before doing it. It's the sort of job that, to be quite honest, if they had held on for another four weeks they would have had no problem whatsoever."
Mr Hawes also suggested the trust install nesting boxes for the birds.
Jenny Rawlinson, spokeswoman for Raven Housing Trust, said: "As soon as we found out that it was causing a problem we stopped work. So the work at the moment has been suspended."
She confirmed the trust would not conduct work which blocked in any more of the birds and that it was looking into solutions.
