Politicians have called for a Scotland-wide seagull summit to be held amid warnings someone could be killed.
Former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross told the nation’s parliament during a debate on the issue that people risk losing their lives over the “growing problem” of “nuisance” gulls.
Scots are being left “scared, attacked and traumatised”, fellow Tory Rachael Hamilton said as she called for a nationwide summit.
Ms Hamilton said “aggressive” seagulls had attacked seven children in one month last year in Eyemouth, leaving one girl “with gashes to her scalp and blood running down her face”.
Agriculture minister Jim Fairlie had already promised to hold a seagull summit in the north of Scotland, but Ms Hamilton, who represents the south of Scotland, said a summit for the whole nation is necessary.
The Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire MSP called for action on the “growing nuisance”, which she said posed a health and safety risk to residents.
‘Real concern’
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Ms Hamilton said the debate was “important” as she criticised what she said was a lack of action from the Scottish government, telling MSPs that “absolutely nothing” was getting done.
“Aggressive seagull behaviour continues to cause a real concern amongst businesses, amongst tourists, amongst everybody that has anything to do along the harbour,” she said about her constituency in Eyemouth.
She said one business owner had described the situation as “people being scared, attacked and traumatised”.
‘Extremely serious issue’
Mr Ross said during the debate on Thursday, one day before summer recess, that people would often “smirk” when hearing that the Scottish parliament was discussing the problems around gulls – but he said it was an “extremely serious issue”.
The Highlands and Islands MSP said constituents have told him they were worried about leaving their homes for fear of being “divebombed”, while others have suffered mental health issues thanks to a lack of sleep caused by noisy gulls.
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He accused NatureScot of having a conflict of interest as the body responsible for both the licensing to control birds and to conserve them.
He went on: “The behaviour of the SNP’s quango NatureScot confirms they have lost the plot. They have told people to protect themselves with umbrellas and even suggested dogs as a deterrent.
“The time has come to break up NatureScot. There is a clear conflict of interest in the fact they are responsible for considering licences to control gulls but are also responsible for protecting bird numbers.”
He added: “The strength of the cross-party support in my debate today should be all the SNP government need to finally act before we see someone killed due to being attacked by a gull.”
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Jim Fairlie, the minister for agriculture, warned that the issue of gulls was “deadly serious”, but said that he could not intervene on NatureScot to change the licensing system because it would leave the government open to judicial review.
He urged people to stop feeding the birds, which he said was the primary reason for the issue.
