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.

Scott Begbie: Gulls don’t belong in our towns, it’s time to ease the laws around culling

It’s because of these flying garbage bins I have been forced to write the following sentence. Douglas Ross is right, the SNP are wrong.

Gulls are on our turf. It's time to turf them out.
Gulls are on our turf. It's time to turf them out.

If I didn’t hate seagulls before then I certainly do now.

It’s because of these flying garbage bins I have been forced to write the following sentence.

Douglas Ross is right, the SNP are wrong.

While I vehemently oppose the politics of the erstwhile Scottish Tory leader, he was spot on when he called for the Scottish Government to remove the legal protection of gulls so powers-that-be can stop them plaguing urban areas by all and any means, including culling.

And Jim Fairlie, the agriculture minister at Holyrood, was way off when he refused on the grounds that “killing them and giving licenses out willy-nilly is not the answer.”

Think a fair few folk might disagree with you on that one, Jim.

Certainly, I have had my fill of the feathered fiends. We are only at March and already the squawking, screeching and messing from dawn to dusk has stepped up a gear.

I get It all evening long around Begbie Towers in Stonehaven and all day long at the office in the heart of Aberdeen.

And once the chicks arrive the noise and mess is joined by the swooping, divebombing and even direct attacks on people as parent gulls become alpha predators.

The Tories were right – gulls cull should not be so difficult

The case Mr Ross cited of an elderly constituent who fell and broke a leg when she was attacked by a gull is far from an isolated incident.

There are countless stories of people, including children, being hurt in gull strikes.

Even when they are not involved in hit-and-run attacks, the blighters mug innocents for their sandwiches or ice creams.

A gull in Aberdeen city centre.

Heaven forfend you try to picnic in some parts and al fresco eating and drinking runs the risk of a gull pooping in your pint. I know, it happened to me.

But the gull menace has now got to a stage where it can put people off going to places overrun by the things – that includes urban centres crying out for people to visit, linger and spend and don’t need any barriers to that.

Farmer Jim’s reason for not letting Mr Ross go avian 007 with a licence to kill was down to the collapse of some gull populations by 48% in their natural habitat – but he concedes they are more common in urban areas.

Okay, so I’m no David Attenborough, but might they not be leaving their “natural habitat” because of the easier picking of burst bins and chucked chips in towns and cities?

But if said gulls are purged from urban spots by either tackling the nests and eggs or if that fails, culling, would they not return to spots where they can prosper in peace?

That may well be simplistic, but it’s surely better than shrugging and saying “live and let live”.

Gulls don’t belong in our cities and towns. It is time to reclaim our spaces for people, not pestilent pests.


Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired.

Conversation