Council votes to cull birds

RESIDENTS in Beccles who complained of disturbance and mess from gulls that have colonised a neighbouring site have been backed by their town council.Last month, a group of neighbours spoke out about increasing numbers of birds every year nesting on an old factory site near Gosford Road and Fair Close.

RESIDENTS in Beccles who complained of disturbance and mess from gulls that have colonised a neighbouring site have been backed by their town council.

Last month, a group of neighbours spoke out about increasing numbers of birds every year nesting on an old factory site near Gosford Road and Fair Close.

Members of Beccles Town Council agreed at a meeting on Tuesday that the birds were a nuisance and voted in support of a cull, following acceptance of a quotation by a suitably qualified firm.

Town clerk Bernie Broom said that action would only be taken by contractors who held a valid licence to carry out such work.

She also said the council was keen to make it clear that any action would be carried out as humanely as possible and only if authority was given by Natural England, adding: “Whoever does it, nothing will be done without a proper and legal licence for culling.”

The council said its next step was to write to pest control firms for quotations for the work, which could cost up to �2,000.

Members also agreed to put an unspecified sum of money up for

the work on the understanding that the site landowner Co-op did likewise.

Spokesman for the residents, Phillip Page, said at the meeting that a cull was a last resort and that a range of other methods would be employed beforehand in an

attempt to stop the birds returning to the site.

He said he was looking into measures such as bird-scarers and stringing, where baler twine is strung across the site at close intervals to stop the birds landing.