Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
He’s got it cracked! Resident’s plan to reduce seagull menace
Hard approach needed to ease noise and mess
Drastic measures are needed to clip the wings of a growing seagull menace in Canterbury.
That’s the view of Stour Street resident Peter Osborne, who has suggested the city council adopts the approach of officials in Devizes in Wiltshire, where hundreds of eggs have been smashed.
He said gulls were blighting the city centre and action needed to be taken.
“I lived in Harbledown for 20 years and we didn’t have them there,”he said.
“I moved back to the centre five years ago and they’re taking over the place.
“It’s a 4.30am dawn chorus of a horrible screeching noise. It’s worse at breeding season.
“They leave the top of cars and windows covered in excrement.
“Someone in our block of flats was attacked by one a few years ago – it drew blood on the top of their head.”
The 74-year-old, a retired research scientist at Wye College, says he complained to the council after his own close shave with a swooping gull, which was nesting on a nearby rooftop.
He recalled: “I rang up and they said ‘Whose roof is it on?’ I didn’t know and they said they needed to speak to the person whose roof it was. I gave up after that.”
Mr Osborne says he thinks the seagulls are being attracted by discarded food, mainly takeaway leftovers.
“I’m fed up with Canterbury City Council giving permission for restaurants at the drop of a hat,” he added.
“There are so many takeaway outlets now.
“People walk along, munching, and whatever they leave, seagulls come and finish off.”
In Devizes, a tourist town, hundreds of people signed a petition calling for a solution to its gull problem, after the noise and mess led to councillors being inundated with complaints.
Pest controllers were employed to remove eggs, while hawks were brought in to scare the gulls away.
Mr Osborne acknowledged there would be bird lovers who would find destroying eggs difficult, saying: “There will be people unhappy about it, but if you tried to shoot them, they’d be unhappy about that too.
“Do you invest in keeping the place cleaner or curb the population of seagulls? Probably a bit of both. But with a 25- year lifespan for a mother to lay eggs, that’s a lot of seagulls.”
City council spokesman Rob Davies says the council has no responsibility to cull or control the seagull population.
He added: “Issues of aggression and noise are fairly typical at this time of year when the birds are protecting their young and their nests and the days are long.
“Private pest control companies can be hired to tackle problems on individual properties and we are aware some larger premises in the district do this.” What do you think? Email kentishgazette@thekmgroup. co.uk or write to Gazette House, 5- 8 Boorman Way, Wraik Hill, Whitstable, CT5
3SE.