Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

More than £2,000 spent on seagull disruption measures at Peterhead prison

HMP Grampian in Peterhead
HMP Grampian in Peterhead

Hundreds of pounds has been spent dealing with “menacing” gulls at a north-east super jail.

Staff have also had to deal with incidents involving mice, flies and mites in HMP Grampian building over the past two years.

In a Freedom of Information request published by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), it was revealed that £2,069 was spent on “seagull disruption measures” in the summer of 2016.

Since July 2015 to August this year, a total of £5232.75 has been spent at HMP Grampian tackling seagulls, flies and rats.


>> Keep up to date with the latest news with The P&J newsletter


HMP Inverness spent £882 on pest control over the same period, dealing with silverfish and ant infestations.

HMP Edinburgh also tackled problems with gulls in 2016 albeit on a much smaller scale.

The Scottish Prison Service uses loud bang measures and the services of hawks to deter gulls from nesting near prisons.

North-east Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said: “Even being sent to jail is not enough to get away from the ever-present north-east seagulls.

“If the hawks were as good at intercepting drugs and mobile phones as they are at frightening off gulls, prison staff could concentrate on the big job of turning prisoners away from a life of crime.”

And Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: “The amount of money spent on just keeping seagulls at bay goes to show how much of a menace they can be.

“It looks like the location may be to blame and these pests are here to stay.

“I’d hope kitchen waste is disposed of properly.

“If offenders don’t like the food, seagulls definitely will.”

Across the Blue Toon, gulls are a notorious problem.

Rediscover Peterhead spent £12,800 on a project this summer to rid town centre businesses of the creatures.

Scottish Prison Service spokesman Tom Fox confirmed the birds have been an issue for prison buildings in the area since the 1880s.

He said: “There’s always been an obvious problem with very large seagulls since Peterhead prison was built and you used to take your life into your hands to get to the work house.

“It doesn’t surprise me that HMP Grampian spent the most on gulls out of the prisons as the seagulls everywhere else are no where near as big.

“To put the birds off nesting on the roof, teams have let off loud bangs and we’ve had people in with hawks to discourage the gulls from nesting.

“If they nest then you’re pretty much stuck with them.

“Other prisons, if they face gulls, they’re much smaller so in Peterhead it’s certainly a location problem.”

In the same period, HMP Inverness spent a total of £882 on silverfish and ant infestations.

Over the same time span, HMP Perth incurred a pest-tackling bill of £3,823.73.

The highest bill HMP Grampian clocked up was in June 2016 costing £979 for seagull disruption measures.

In comparison, the highest cost for HMP Perth came to £505 in August this year for the installation of pigeon spiking and bird gel for the window sills.