Noisy Seagulls creating a nuisance in Cheltenham

This summer I have received many more complaints about the nuisance caused by seagulls than I have for many years. I am pressing my council colleagues to prioritise tackling this issue. 

Each year the Borough Council sets aside a small budget to pay for the ‘cherry picker’ needed for staff to reach nests to oil eggs at different locations around the town. This year 447 eggs were oiled in 172 nests. 

However due to the long, mainly hot summer gulls have been re-laying eggs after the ones that have been oiled and so council officers think the egg oiling was less successful this year.

The council’s ‘Urban Gulls Focus Group’ met recently which I attended. We heard that the oil used to treat gull eggs will no longer be able to be used next year unless a special dispensation is granted to the council. 

Those of us present, including residents and councillors, all agreed that a bigger budget was needed, along with a revised plan of action to include using dummy egg replacements in nests, as this is thought to be more effective than oiling. Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any thoughts on this - klara.sudbury@gloucestershire.gov.uk