A town is going to war after being invaded by an army of seagulls.
Thousands of the flying scavengers have descended on Drogheda, Co Louth, causing havoc on a daily basis. Rubbish is being strewn everywhere, the streets are filthy from their droppings and residents have had food snatched out of their hands.
Now a town hall public meeting is being held to consider how to deal with the pests. Former Mayor Frank Godfrey said: “The seagull problem is going from bad to worse as the year goes on.
"This summer for some unknown reason there seems to be thousands of them. They are a nuisance and people are fed up with them.
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"We need to find some humane ways to control or get rid of the seagulls. We all know they are noisy but they are picking rubbish out of bins and making the streets look filthy.
“Their droppings rain down on our citizens and are splattered all over our roads, footpaths and buildings. Wherever there is rubbish you will find these birds and they make an awful mess of cars too.
“Both our businesses and the ordinary people are suffering and are fed up with them.”
Some traders have installed wild bird calls to try and scare the seagulls off but they just move to other nesting sites around the historic town. The public meeting is being held in the town’s D Hotel on Monday, June 26 at 7pm.
Mr Godfrey said: “We are expecting a big turnout, enough is enough.”
Seagulls are a protected species under the EU Birds Directive. However the Minister for the Environment has the power to allow nests and eggs to be destroyed when they are a threat to public health and safety .
A recent local government Urban Gull survey identified Drogheda and Balbriggan as two of the worst places in the country affected by seagulls. Mr Godfrey added: “The seagulls seem to like Drogheda but Drogheda has had enough of them.
“We need to take urgent action.”
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