The Mayor of Tenby is calling for a 'gull cull' in the town to be put high on the pecking order of issues to be looked at by Pembrokeshire County Council.

Raising the topic at a recent meeting of Tenby Town Council, First Citizen Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane requested that the local authority be approached to see if there was a way of controlling 'herring gulls' in the resort, after hearing stories of the birds attacking builders on rooftops and families on beaches.

"It's a dangerous issue health wise and it's getting out of control, so I feel the time has come to get in touch with the county council, to see what control methods can be brought in," she told her fellow councillors.

Clr. Trevor Hallett said that he felt part of the problem was that people needed to be educated as to when they were putting their rubbish bags out for collection, as this source of 'easy food' for the gulls was the main cause of the problems.

Clr. Mrs. Kerri Durham disagreed and said that the majority of people in the town put their bin bags out covered up, but that the gulls still managed to remove the covers and shred through the bags.

Although he felt that pigeons were a bigger problem, describing them as 'filthy creatures', Clr. Will Rossiter said that he didn't have an issue with the gulls and stuck up for them.

"It only becomes a problem in the summer, but the gulls are a beautiful bird that are our companions, so we can't just go off shooting them, and there's no such thing as 'controlling' them," he said.

"If we take this too far, we'll make ourselves a laughing stock," added Clr. Rossiter.

Clr. Dr. Peter Easy said that a carefully worded letter needed to go to the authority specifically pointing out the health and safety risks that the gulls posed to the town.

"We need evidence that is provable," he commented, with Clr. Mrs Trisha Putwain stating that she felt that gull droppings could also be poisonous.

"I'd like to hear more people to give their views on this. I do know things are getting out of control though, with stories of builders being attacked on rooftops and families on beaches by these herring gulls," said Clr. Mrs. Lane.

"They were once just sea birds, but now they're fast becoming land birds and need controlling," she added, emphasising that she merely wanted the authority to look into ways of controlling the herring gulls under the correct legislation.