Seaford: Keep gulls nests off our roofs!!

A pair of seagulls and their chicks were controversially killed in Pevensey Close, Seaford, last week after an 86-year-old pensioner was attacked in her garden.

The woman, who needed stitches to her head, was so alarmed by her ordeal she refused to return home.

No organisation was prepared to take responsibility for dealing with the birds and Lewes District Council was eventually forced to hire a sharpshooter to kill them.

Now residents fear someone could be seriously hurt, or even killed, if action is not taken to deter gulls from nesting on rooftops.

Reg and Barbara Bond, of Morningside Close, and their neighbours Cynthia Rozzier and Cedric and Hazel Trenfield, called for Lewes District Council to deal with aggressive and dangerous gulls.

Mr Bond said he loved the sound of the gulls and the sight of them wheeling and soaring overhead.

But he added: My wife and I live next to two families of gulls, both happy in their rooftop nests complete with six recently born chicks wandering the rooftops.

They have this year, as in previous years, caused some consternation when protecting their young by often swooping low accompanied by loud shrieks in an attempt to warn off anyone in the garden.

Gulls dived on people hanging out washing and attacked pets said Mr Bond. He warned: We should be concerned that some day, somewhere, a baby will be attacked in its pram and could be seriously injured or killed.

It is no use the council holding up its hands and saying sorry, not our problem . What we must have is a policy to deter the seagull population from nesting on our home rooftops. I know it will cost but funds must be made available before a human tragedy happens.

A Lewes District Council spokesman said the cost of dealing with gulls was a burden it could not afford to bear. The council does not operate a seagull control service in the coastal towns.

'Any such service would be costly, contentious and ultimately unsuccessful. Instead we refer individual householders onto specialist contractors who can fit netting, spikes and other devices on buildings to deter seagulls.

'If the council provided such a service, the demand for proofing works would be endless. As long as there are good sources of food in the towns, the seagulls would simply move their nesting sites onto nearby buildings which had not been proofed.

He added: The action taken to cull a family of seagulls in Seaford last week was wholly exceptional, in response to a very serious attack on an elderly lady. We do not propose to introduce a comprehensive control service.

Published: 13.7.01 T R Beckett Ltd