An influx of seagulls in Penrith has been drawing fire from businesses and residents over claims of noise and nuisance.
The avian issue was raised by members of Penrith Business Improvement District, a collection of companies and organisations trying to improve trading in the town centre.
It said it had been inundated with complaints about seagulls revolving around noise levels at night, aggressive behaviour and guano throughout town.
A spokeswoman for Penrith BID said the group was working with its stakeholders in a number of locations to reduce the negative impact of seagulls, but no clear solutions had yet been reached.
She added that the recent heatwave had made the problem worse, as younger gulls have increasingly come off roofs to escape the scorching sun, bringing with them their constant cries and their mothers’ protective behaviour.
Penrith residents have taken to social media to voice their frustration.
Graham Arnold, of New Squares, complained of sleep-deprivation from their noisy late-night antics.
Gillian Sayer reported a hyper-aggressive nesting pair in Castletown that dive-bombed her cat and squawked from 2am until sunrise.
The issue is not confined to Penrith.
Last week, Keswick’s mayor Alan Dunn put out an SOS to rid his town of the birds, which have left some residents sleepless and worried to leave their homes.
Seagull is an imprecise term. Two species make up Penrith’s screeching seabirds, the lesser black-backed gull and the herring gull. Both are protected with overall populations falling nationally, according to RSPB.
Ten years ago, a study found just a single gull nest in Penrith — the only roof-nesting pair more than 10 kilometres from the Cumbrian coast. Now lesser black-backed gulls and herring gulls number several hundred respectively and nest mainly on the town’s warehouses.
Indeed, from a gull’s eye view, towns and cities are an ideal nesting site. With fewer predators, an abundance of food and far warmer conditions than those on the coast, urban gull colonies are now commonplace across Europe.
It is illegal to kill all gulls in the UK, or damage their nests. Licenses to control populations can be acquired in extreme circumstances but causing a nuisance and minor damage to properties are not legally sanctioned reasons for a gull cull.
A spokesperson for Eden District Council, said: “All of our town centres in Eden play a critical role as community hubs and drivers for economic recovery and growth.
“To this end, Eden District Council is working closely with the Penrith Business Improvement District to examine this particular issue in more detail, in order to develop an appropriate response.”
While Eden District Council and Penrith BID are still unclear about how to solve the issue, some organisations have begun to take action with two Rentokil hawkers spotted flying their birds above Penrith hospital in hopes of warding off would-be nesters.
