Funding for urban gull probe rejected
Funding for a three-year research project which could have helped find new solutions to Bath’s gull nuisance headaches has been refused.
Cash to look into the living, eating and breeding habits of gulls across the South West has been rejected due to Government spending curbs.
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Bristol University applied for £500,000 from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to track urban gulls in Bath, Bristol and Gloucester, using global positioning satellite technology to work out their feeding sources and migratory movements.
Bristol-based urban gull expert Peter Rock had hoped the research would go some way to finding a solution to the ever increasing gull populations in urban areas and to reduce council and private sector spending on the problem.
However, along with most other government departments and quangos, NERC is having to make 25 per cent savings, and has turned down the approach.
Mr Rock described the news as a ‘bitter blow’ for everyone who has been involved in trying to find a solution.
He said in an email to politicians and council chiefs: “As urban gull populations continue to grow rapidly, without research, we all know that the inevitable prospect is one of increasing problems and increasing expense.
“Having discussed the matter at length, we have decided that we will devote our determination to exploring other funding possibilities.”
Bath and North East Somerset Council spends £10,000 a year using egg oiling and egg replacement techniques to try to reduce the gull population but the cost to tourism businesses of the birds is likely to be far higher.
It is now estimated that there are around 1,000 breeding pairs of urban gulls in Bath and north east Somerset, a figure which is rising annually by eight per cent, with numbers in the city centre going up by 2.5 per cent each year.
Bath MP Don Foster, who has been pressing successive governments to take the issue of urban gulls more seriously, said such a research project was necessary to find a solution which would work.
He said: “I am very disappointed that the research grant has not been approved.
“I think part of the issue is that people, unless they are directly affected as people in Bath are, don’t realise how serious the problem is.
“It is sometimes treated as a bit of a joke but the truth is it affects many people, it is a growing problem, and action does need to be taken.”
He added: “Unless we have the research we will continue to use measures which, on the whole, are not very successful.
“The problem is growing despite the fact that the council is taking action.
“We need the research project and we need to get over to people that this is a much more serious problem than many people believe it to be.”
Mr Foster said he would continue to lobby for research funding in Parliament.
According to Mr Rock the vast majority of urban gulls have now left town and cities.
However the next breeding season begins in November, with the majority of the gulls returning by the end of January.
He says: “We need to start preparing for the 2011 season as soon as possible.”
22 Comments
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by Treezagreen, Bath
Sunday, September 05 2010, 11:59PM
“Mrs Dixon I'd like to be your friend on facebook! Ur great!”
by Moe, Bath
Tuesday, August 31 2010, 10:55PM
“My own bit of (entirely anecdotal) 'research' involved observing the gulls' behaviour at discrete periods over the course of an evening (i.e. watching them every time I left the pub for a fag).
They appeared to be gathering in ever increasing numbers in the vicinity of Kingsmead Square as chucking out time loomed. They also appeared to get noisier; presumably with excitement. They're not stupid these gulls. Maybe we could use a small fraction of that half-million to pay them to s*d off somewhere else?”
by johnbatheaston, Batheaston
Tuesday, August 31 2010, 9:21AM
“Dave Larkhall
Nah hit wuz inglish eye wuz crepe hat. Eye ment to rite "off" rafer than "of". Anywhey eye whent to a gud skool. Hit wuz han "Approved School" sed the kourt
Seeing you live in Lark Hall I guess you are on the side of the feathered friends”
by Viscount Vixley, Bath
Tuesday, August 31 2010, 9:19AM
“As a result of my own "Urban Gull Probe" conducted entirely for free over a space of a few seconds, I have concluded:
Stop feeding the gulls and they will fly off to pastures greasier!!!”
by Dave, Larkhall
Monday, August 30 2010, 9:30PM
“90% of £500,000 = £50,000
Didn't do sums at school then JohnBatheaston?”
by johnbatheaston, Batheaston
Monday, August 30 2010, 5:22PM
“"It is now estimated that there are around 1,000 breeding pairs of urban gulls in Bath and north east Somerset, a figure which is rising annually by eight per cent, with numbers in the city centre going up by 2.5 per cent each year."
My research shows that from the above statement seagulls do not like to live in the city centre. Can I have £50k please only 90% of what Mr Rock was seeking”
by Ann, Bath
Monday, August 30 2010, 1:39PM
“I think Peter Rock should be congratulated on the work he has carried out so far, but if the food source was removed we could return to the days when people said on seeing a flock of seagulls inland that it must be rough at sea ! Just wondering if hessian sacks were trialled in Bath as discussed in 2008 .. http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/committee_papers/OandSSSC/SSC081127/10aCoverrep.htm
and in the reply to Don Fosters speech in the Commons last year
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-04-23b.469.0
i.e., black bag put inside hessian one for collection.”
by Neil Pie, Student Flat
Monday, August 30 2010, 10:29AM
“Gulls should be wiped out man. Kill, Kill.”
by Margaret, Bath
Sunday, August 29 2010, 10:27PM
“Google is our friend nb ;o)
"He believes the key issue in gull control may well turn out to be food. Gulls began nesting on buildings and moving inland partly as their wild colonies, on clifftops, were filling up, but also because, after the Clean Air Act of 1956, household waste, rather than being burnt, went straight to landfill.
A rubbish tip may be unsightly to us but it is a banquet as far as seagulls are concerned. They need only 150g of food a day, and while it might take seven or eight hours to find that in the wild, at a landfill site they can satisfy their appetite in a matter of minutes.
When I ask Rock whether there might be a natural upper limit on the swelling population of seagulls his answer is a mere shrug. 'Food is the only limit,' he says. 'And there is an awful lot of it about."
That's half a million saved then ?”
by nb, bath
Sunday, August 29 2010, 5:37PM
“ho, ho well spotted Ann. "Peter Rock, an avian expert who claims to know more about urban seagulls than anyone else on the planet" - obviously not enough though. There's money to be made in seagulls!”