Calls to speed up food waste plans to thwart gulls

A council has been urged to speed up plans for weekly food waste collections to stop gulls attacking bin bags.

The proposal was part a £119,000 urban gull strategy for Scarborough and Whitby, which includes investment in education campaigns, gull-proof rubbish bags plus new and retrofitted litter bins.

North Yorkshire Council is not set to start separate household food waste collections until 2043, but councillors have suggested a pilot programme for coastal areas.

Council environmental protection officer Tim Croot said any strategy needed to "take account of the needs of the birds as much as the needs of people".

"The strategy from the very outset aimed to try and create some cohesion where we could have co-existence and acceptance of the birds," he said.

"It is their coast as much as it is the humans' coast."

He said the method used by Scarborough Borough Council – which was amalgamated into North Yorkshire Council in 2023 - such as netting and spikes "wasn't terribly successful".

The key pillars of the new strategy – which is currently a theoretical document - are focused on waste and rubbish, cleaning and jet washing, targeted proofing, monitoring and planning.

Councillor Janet Jefferson welcomed the proposal to bring forward food waste collections and said education was key, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"I see people feeding them publicly, and also just dumping their rubbish bags in the street," she said.

Councillor Neil Swannick added: "If you could take the food waste out of the waste stream and stop it being mixed up with other materials, then potentially you could at least deal with a major part of the problem.

"If there was a culture of everyone putting food waste into a separate collection bin, then that removes food waste from the waste site."

The amendment and recommendations were unanimously endorsed by the Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee and a final decision will be made by the executive committee in August.

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