Seagulls get the sack in Scarborough rubbish blitz

A seaside council is adopting a new measure in its battle to curb nuisance seagulls from ransacking through people's rubbish.
Borough-wide measures are being taken by Scarborough Borough Council to clampdown on nuisance seagull behaviour.Borough-wide measures are being taken by Scarborough Borough Council to clampdown on nuisance seagull behaviour.
Borough-wide measures are being taken by Scarborough Borough Council to clampdown on nuisance seagull behaviour.

Scarborough Borough Council hopes that the distribution of free seagull-proof sacks to residents and businesses in known seagull attack hotspots of the tourist town will help eliminate the long-running problem.

Unlike in other parts of the region, not all householders and business premises use wheelie bins to store their rubbish. For practical reasons, such as narrow streets, some areas of the borough - including in Whitby - see rubbish bags left outside on the street for collection.

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But the bags are often targeted by scavenging gulls, which rip them open in search of their next meal and strew rubbish on the street.

By introducing new seagull-proof sacks, the council hopes to drastically reduce and ultimately eliminate the problem.

Used by a growing number of coastal authorities, the council said the woven polypropylene sacks have proven to be highly effective. They have a high resistance to pecking and tearing, and a secure Velcro fastening lid.

The sacks are one of a number of initiatives the council is introducing to combat the nuisance problems associated with gulls as a result of recommendations made by its Environment and Economy Scrutiny Committee task group review last year.

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The chairman of the task group, Councillor Godfrey Allanson, said: “Legal methods to reduce the problems associated with gulls are limited and therefore we are taking a step by step approach, using a number of initiatives, which when combined together, should make a noticeable difference in the longer term.

“The seagull proof sacks should prevent gulls from scavenging at rubbish bags, which currently causes much inconvenience to our local residents and businesses and results in additional clean up bills for our Environmental Services team.

“Also on the agenda for this summer is the launch of a poster and signage campaign to further our education of the public about the importance of not feeding gulls.”

Coun Andrew Jenkinson, who champions measures to reduce the problems associated with gulls, added: “I am delighted that these sacks will soon be in use in our borough. While for some people no visit to the seaside would be complete without seeing and hearing seagulls, for others they are a genuine nuisance and I think anything we can legally do to reduce the problems they cause can only be a good thing for all concerned.

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“Evidence from other local authorities in the UK that have introduced this type of sack is very encouraging and we have no reason to believe they won’t have the desired effect in our area.”

Other measures the council has taken since the review are: writing to local commercial property owners in the problem areas advising them on netting their buildings to prevent gull nesting, adding advice and information to its website and developing an online ‘gull mugging’ reporting form, which allows anyone that experiences nuisance behaviour or an attack by a seagull to report it to the council. The council will then be able to use this evidence to get a clearer picture of the scale of the problem across the borough.