In November we ran a workshop on the problem of urban gulls, in collaboration with CARA. We invited both gull experts and major property owners. The principle conclusions we took from the meeting where:
- That there was a need to gather much more information about the cost of urban gull both in terms of the cost of deterrents and the cost associated with the damage they caused.
- That there is a need for much more effective coordination of the use of deterrent measures because all current methods have the effect of redistributing populations and the implications of that need to be thought through.
- That there are currently only two effective methods for keeping gulls off buildings those are netting and egg oiling. Both are expensive to deploy and maintain and need to be kept up over a long period of time. Netting has the additional problem that if it is not done well it can lead to much unnecessary suffering as birds can become trapped.
- We need to work more effectively with others to lobby Government to take the problem more seriously
- We will be setting up a network of residents to identify problems where food waste is being left on the street and exploited by gulls; to get a quicker resolution of those problems
- We will be continuing to work closely with Bath’s major property owners on this problem including BANES
- We need BANES to play a more active leadership role in:
- Coordinating the collection of data about costs
- Coordinating the deployment of anti-gull measures
- Responding to reports of food waste being exploited by gulls
- Lobbying government more effectively