Councillors pitch £30,000 gull-busting plan to clean up coastal communities

Fife pair say it’s now apriorityforthe council to act to solve ‘huge problem’

Two Fife councillors are seeking support for a £30,000 plan to introduce anti-gull measures in the kingdom’s coastal communities.

Councillors Tom Adams and Peter George, who have dubbed themselves the Gullbusters, were asked by council leader David Ross in July to investigate potential solutions to the problem.

They have now reported their findings to the council’s Labour group, with a hope of getting it approved by the full council later this year.

Councillor Adams, who represents Leven, said it was a priority for the council to tackle the issue as soon as possible.

“To do nothing now isn’t an option,” he said.

“It’s becoming a bigger and bigger problem. It isn’t going to be easy – it’s a huge problem.

“There isn’t a statutory duty for councils to deal with this. People’s complaints are justified but they do not understand there is no statutory duty.

“I spoke to David Ross, the council leader, and said it is going to be expensive – it’s not a cheap thing. Talking to other councils, the amount they spend is around £30,000 a year.”

Under their plans, a member of staff from environmental services would take on the responsibility of dealing with gulls by removing nests and eggs from hotspots to discourage birds from nesting there.

In addition, speakers which play out distress calls to frighten away the gulls would be installed.

Their hope is to run a year-long trial in a badly-affected area, such as Kirkcaldy High Street, to measure the effects. If successful, they would then hope to roll out similar programmes across Fife.

Their main concerns are aggressive gulls and noise. However, Mr George highlighted other related issues.

“People are complaining about the mess they are leaving behind,” he said.

“They are blocking up pipes and letting weeds grow.

“It’s a nationwide issue and it is needing to be dealt with on a national level.

“We need to identify and assess the importance of seagulls’ food sources.” People don’t like gulls intruding on their living space and gulls feel the same way about people.

Gulls do the same things as people are trying to do; they both defend themselves against the encroachment of the invaders.

But the gulls that nest on our rooftops from where they wail at us and launch dive-bombing runs that knock us off our bikes or otherwise upset our equilibrium, are there because we invited them in.

Because we make a mess. We defile our streets with discarded food. Many of us have not learned to discipline ourselves to put unwanted food into litter bins. Councils don’t empty litter bins before they overflow, and most of them are not gull-proof anyway.

There are a few gull-proof litter bins around (Anstruther for example) but because we are undisciplined in the matter of using them, they might as well not be there.

Gulls are in our streets because we carpet them with gull food, which is pretty well everything edible.When we learn to be clean, we will solve the problem at a stroke. I was in Norway once, for six days. In six days I did not see a single piece of litter. So it is possible.

It will be better for us, and better for gulls, if we make our own living spaces free from gull food.

And unlike all the other proposed solutions, it’s free.

Picture: Kim Cessford. Councillors in Fife are looking at potential solutions to the seagulls menace and they say the issue has to be dealt with on a national level.