Egg oiling treatments put on hold due to national licence issue

»

EVERY summer, residents eating sandwiches or sausage rolls become victims of gulls who swoop down to get their dinner.

The birds can become aggressive when protecting their young and looking for food, and humans just get in the way.

In response, councils coat their eggs with liquid paraffin oil to stop the inner embryo from developing. However, coronavirus has dashed plans for the seagull eggs to be dealt with this year.

In Gloucester, the city council was not able to carry out egg oiling due to “a national issue of Natural England granting licences for bird control”.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Cheltenham Borough Council said: “Due to unforeseen circumstances in the light of operational issues caused by the coronavirus, the difficult decision was made to cancel the gull egg treatment programme in Cheltenham this year.

“The issue of Natural England granting licences for bird control means also that we don’t currently have a licence for the work - and this season’s eggs will now largely have hatched - however we have not had a significant increase in complaints.”

A spokesperson for Gloucester City Council said: “Gloucester City Council has continued control visits through March to May using the usual methods. However, there is currently a national issue of Natural England granting licences for bird control so June’s visit didn’t go ahead.

“We expect this should be resolved very soon so that visits can happen from July onwards. This delay won’t have had much of an effect and the council has not received any increase in complaints about gulls.”