CHIPS HIT FAN FOR GULLS
Now towns can finally deal with birds’ invasion
TOWNS plagued by psycho seagulls have been given a “licence to cull” as officials were granted permission to seize eggs from nests.
In a UK wildlife first, bosses at Bath and Worcester councils will have the right to take urban gulls’ eggs before they hatch in a bid to curb the pests’ population.
They can also replace them with decoys or coat gull eggs in oil to stop embryos developing.
The move comes after seagull strikes have seen families dive-bombed, pensioners pecked, toddlers attacked, fish and chip munchers mugged for food, dogs carried into the air and beauty spots splattered with excrement.
Until now, UK councils had to wait up to a month for the approval to remove the contents of bird nests – by which time the eggs would have hatched.
But a scheme starting next month in gull-plagued
Bath and Worcester will allow the city’s councils to remove them without having to wait for a licence.
Authorities are surveying residents to see when they have been tormented by gulls, which will help pinpoint prime spots for egg culls.
Joy Squires, a
Worcester city councillor, said gull attacks have a “severe impact” on residents.
She added:
“They do cause a lot of distress and particularly with increasing numbers of people living in and around the city centre, that was having a quite severe impact on people’s mental health, because they were not sleeping well.”
The council’s gull control officer Gordon Dugan added: “I can instruct contractors immediately if we have to carry out an intervention, which would be the removal of the nest and the removal of the eggs.” The cities were chosen to pilot the scheme, which runs until August, due to soaring numbers of applications to remove the nuisances’ nests. The RSPB has stressed that elsewhere gulls are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act with breaches carrying punishment of a six-month prison sentence or a £5,000 fine.