Gull plague!

2:30pm Thursday 1st February 2007

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A CAMPAIGN to tackle the problem of urban gulls has been launched by a city councillor who says the flying menace is a plague on the streets of Truro.

Rob Nolan says the gull's are becoming increasingly more daring and are now snatching pasties out of people's hands.

"Local government can't ignore the gulls forever," he said. "They've resorted to getting a trained falcon in at St Ives, but that doesn't appear to be working."

From the shop-fronts, where keeping the windows clean is proving to be impossible, to the piazza, where Coun Nolan has heard protests about gulls "repeatedly snatching pasties off people," the marauding birds are becoming more than just a nuisance.

Coun Nolan is asking for a focus on education. "The idea is to find out how they're dealing with the problem up country. There's no quick fix," he said. "We could just go around shooting all the gulls in Truro - but within a month, all the birds from Falmouth will have moved in."

The problems are bad enough around the town - but if a seagull chooses to make its nest in your home, there's no escape, said Coun Nolan.

"I've had so many complaints. People can't get to sleep at night if they have gulls in their roof in the mating season."

One Truro roof repairman, who prefers not to be named, described the problem as "awful." He said: "They're always a problem - and they can cause a lot of damage. I've lifted out a hundred weight of debris and old carcasses clogging up guttering. But I'd rather not go near them - they get too aggressive."

George Ferris, who runs pest-control company Be-Ta-Pest, has been dealing with seagulls for 19 years. He said: "I've been out at four in the morning because of nesting birds creating havoc and dive-bombing people on the path. But people can deal with the problem themselves if they take appropriate action. Often, household rubbish will get left out on a Tuesday and not collected until the Friday - it's just sat there for the gulls. The solution is to cut off the food sources and get rid of the nests - it's as simple as that.

"The gulls in St Ives are worst. They'll stand up to you there. But some people love them! They'll stand there feeding them in the garden. Often people are unaware of the problems they cause to others. The council needs to sit down and take specific action."

One possible solution councillors will discuss will be to replace the nesting gulls' eggs with clay ones, when they begin laying in the spring. These "dummy" eggs prevent the gulls from laying and hatching a new brood.

"I'm the most minor councillor in Truro," said Coun Nolan, "and the only person tackling the problem."

"I'm a bit fed up of being associated with the gulls - I'm even getting seagull related Christmas presents!"

At a meeting in City Hall on Friday delegates from the environmental health departments of the district councils, the waste disposal companies, the mayors and town clerks of affected towns and residents groups heard a talk by Peter Rock, the leading expert on urban gulls.

Among the many statistics presented by Mr Rock to show the scale of the problem is that in 1996 Bristol had 2,000 breeding pairs. In 2006, 22,000. They forecast 218,000 by 2014. This is more than the current total UK gull population.