Marauding seagulls terrorising four northern seaside towns are now set to be tackled with a £36,000 council strategy designed to protect tourists from coming under attack.
The picturesque coastal towns of Scarborough, Whitby, Filey and Bridlington, in North Yorkshire, attract thousands of visitors each year who come to enjoy the beaches, local attractions and North Sea air.
But seagulls, which are protected under UK law, have become an increasing headache for traders with some forced to erect barbed wire to deter the boisterous birds.
Like the Viking invaders on this coast hundreds of years ago, the large sea birds are aggressive in their pillaging and now local councillors are drawing up a battle plan to fight back this summer.
According to The Times, a new £36,000 plan will look at how alternative nesting sites on the Yorkshire coast could be found for the avian aggravators.
Conservative councillor Keane Duncan said: “We have had a number of scary incidents, including more than 60 reports of gull mugging attacks of people and pets over the last two years, so we’re trying to discourage that by saying: do not feed the birds, do not drop litter.
“Clearly fried fish, chips, ice cream are not part of a seagull’s diet, so we want to make sure we are discouraging interactions between humans and birds.”
Dean Richardson, the council’s head of regulatory services, pointed to ledges and rooftops providing an “ideal” site for nesting spots for the birds.
He said: “There is a perceived increase in the urban gull population in our coastal towns and the council has received an increased number of complaints.”
Measures including in the new council battle plan, include educating people about the dangers of feeding seagulls, as well as the use of signage and awareness campaigns. People will also be discouraged from leaving litter and rubbish on the beach.
Ashton Bunn, who has previously been paid to clear seagull waste, told the Times: “It seems like a constant problem as no sooner have we got it cleaned, it is back again.
“There’s nothing you can really do as they have tried to put barbed wire up on the windowsills but it doesn’t seem to be working. It needs addressing but we are in a seaside town so you have to accept that this is part of it.”
The plans in Yorkshire mirror several similar strategies in Scotland and in Bath and North Somerset, the latter of which has had a plan in place since 2016.
