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1 | | Bristol City Council has | | | | told that shooting the birds was |
| | become so fed up with the growing | | | | considered too dangerous. The |
| | seagull population in their city, that | | | | only long-term solution to the |
| | they are spending £25,000 on | | | | problem was dipping the eggs in a |
| | tackling the problem. More than | | | | mineral oil to make them sterile. |
| | 2,000 pairs of the birds are | | 3 | | Faced with a £30,000 bill to |
| | believed to be living in the city | | | | carry out the oil-dipping |
| | centre and the population is rising | | | | programme across the city, |
| | by an estimated 17 per cent a | | | | Mr Cromer found a way of saving |
| | year. The population explosion, | | | | money from an unlikely source. |
| | which has been blamed on fast | | | | “I was looking into catering costs |
| | food litter left by people, has led to | | | | and one of the things that came up |
| | a flood of complaints from | | | | was the money we spent on |
| | residents. The gulls are notoriously | | | | biscuits at meetings, which was |
| | noisy - particularly during the | | | | quite a considerable amount. |
| | mating season - and produce large | | | | At the same time a colleague was |
| | quantities of droppings. There | | | | looking into a trial involving dipping |
| | have also been some reports of | | | | seagull eggs in oil. The cost of the |
| | seagulls dive-bombing people to | | | | dipping scheme was around |
| | protect their territory. | | | | £30,000 and I said ‘I think I’ve |
2 | | Steve Cromer, deputy council | | | | found £25,000’- by axing the |
| | leader, looked into the problem | | | | biscuits. Biscuits just seemed a |
| | and found the authority’s options | | | | luxury we could easily do without!” |
| | were extremely limited. He was | | |