\n Jemma Coles, North Somerset Council councillor for Weston-super-Mare Mid Worle, said residents had contacted her about growing numbers of gulls around the Queensway area.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Liberal Democrat councillor said the main issues reported by residents were noise, including overnight, and increasingly aggressive behaviour during the nesting season.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said nearby businesses could be contributing to the problem by providing access to food waste.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a social media post, Ms Coles said: “I’ve had a few concerns raised about the number of gulls around the Queensway area.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The main issues are the noise, including at night, and increasingly aggressive behaviour during the nesting season.\n<\/p>\n
\n “With fast-food chains, supermarkets and the industrial estates all nearby, there are also plenty of places where accessible food waste could be attracting them.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Queensway is home to a range of businesses, including supermarkets, industrial units and fast-food restaurants, including a McDonald’s.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Coles noted that gulls are protected birds and that nests cannot simply be removed or relocated.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “The gulls themselves are protected, so nobody can simply move nests or interfere with them.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But we can look at what may be drawing them into the area in the first place, particularly uncovered rubbish, overflowing bins and people feeding them.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The councillor said she had asked North Somerset Council whether businesses in the area could be encouraged to ensure bins are secure and emptied regularly.\n<\/p>\n
\n She added: “I’ve asked the council whether the relevant businesses around Queensway can be contacted and encouraged to check that their outside bins are secure, covered and emptied often enough.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The post ended with a light-hearted appeal to residents not to feed the birds.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “And a gentle plea, please don’t feed the gulls.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They’re already bold enough to queue for a Big Mac and complain if the chips are cold.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jemma Coles, North Somerset Council councillor for Weston-super-Mare Mid Worle, said residents had contacted her about growing numbers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-703920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}