A councillor has volunteered to climb on to the roof of a Moray school to lead the fight against menacing gulls.
Forres representative George Alexander made the unusual offer to clamber to the top of the town’s secondary school to get rid of the birds.
He said: “The gulls on the roof of Forres Academy have been a massive problem for years – they even cost us money because there’s evidence the patching that goes on the roof to stop it leaking actually gets picked off by them as they idly sit there.
“There is nothing you can do to gull-proof that roof. It’s flat and they’re always going to nest on it. The only way is for someone to go up there and prick the eggs.
“If the janitor is not allowed to do that, then this councillor is quite happy to do it. The mess they make up there is disgusting.”
Yesterday the council’s planning and regulatory services committee met to discuss ways to deal with the birds which are blighting Moray neighbourhoods.
Mr Alexander urged the authority to spread awareness of how homeowners could get rid of the territorial gulls.
He added: “It becomes quite scary when you look into licences. There’s a lot of talk about shooting them or trapping them – it can put people off doing something.
“If somebody sees Mr and Mrs Gull on their roof, they can quickly end up with a whole colony. All it takes is for them [members of the public] to be proactive and to go up there and prick the eggs and we should be encouraging people to do this.”
A range of alternatives were presented to the committee, including a cull, using drones to oil eggs and a hawk.
Councillors subsequently exchanged stories about how gulls were causing a variety of problems for the communities they represented.
But, despite acknowledging the nuisance the birds were causing, authority chief Jim Grant said the financial constraints they were working under meant no action could be done and they had no duty to act.
Committee members decided to submit a response to a Scottish Natural Heritage consultation, so that residents could have more information about how to control the pests.