Could litter clean-up tackle gull problem?

A resident has suggested the council enforce a strict litter patrol and feeding fine to tackle the gull problem. Scarborough Borough Council has continued to ignore growing calls from residents to take firm action against the gull menace.

Following a trip to Llandudno, a seaside town in Wales, resident Anne Phillips has suggested the council take steps to reduce litter which could help lower the gull population in the town.

“There should be someone who should enforce this, it’s useless having these laws with no one to enforce them,” said Mrs Phillips. “It is working (in Llandudno). As soon as we arrived we were warned about the fines of up to £2,500.”

Other residents have suggested a steep punishment for those who feed the gulls, while many have called for effective action to be taken to reduce the gull menace.

One resident said: “This year something has gone drastically wrong. As an estimate, there’s four to six times the amount of the birds here and they are constantly fighting for space.”

The Scarborough News is campaigning for a change in the law to manage the populations of seabirds including kittiwakes in the interest of public safety, health and the environment.

A petition has been set up on the Government’s website asking for more to be done to take steps to control the population. If the petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will respond to the petition. Any petition which reaches 100,000 signatures will be considered for debate in parliament.

Sign the petition online at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/165889