Visitors urged not to feed seagulls amid growing food '˜muggings'

Scarborough Borough Council announced yesterday that it is introducing new warning signs in a bid to prevent both residents and visitors to coastal towns feeding gulls.

Herring gulls have become notorious in recent years for their opportunistic “muggings” for food, especially when raising their chicks.

The behaviour of the birds has been exacerbated by people actively feeding the gulls and leaving litter and food waste on beaches.

Scarborough Borough Council’s environment and regulation manager Jonathan Bramley said: “It has become increasingly evident in the last few years that there are a number of factors contributing to the behaviour of the herring gulls and the problems associated with them. While controlling egg and nest numbers to start to bring the herring gull population down to a more manageable number is one solution, we have to tackle one of the biggest problems, which is our human behaviour and how it is teaching the gulls that taking human food is acceptable.”

The number of seagulls, which have become bold after years of living alongside urban areas, have risen significantly in recent years and become increasingly problematic – particularly in the Scarborough Bay and Whitby harbour areas.

Scarborough Borough Council’s cabinet member for public health and housing Coun Bill Chatt said: “Tackling the nuisance caused by gulls isn’t just the job of the council or local businesses – it is a collective responsibility that we all have to commit to if we want to bring about positive changes in the coming months and years.”

A task group was set up in 2015 to tackle the issue of the nuisance gulls, setting out initial measures to clean up the streets and promote education.

The Yorkshire Post reported in January that since March last year, there had been 36 reports of gulls “mugging” humans for food made to Scarborough Borough Council.