Thursday, April 09, 2015

Big Slide, pigeons and seagulls – Nairn River CC back Westies and Subbies initiatives

Last night are River CCs regular meeting in the URC hall Fred Holmes said to his colleagues:

“Can I say something about the West and Suburban Community Councils? As you have probably read in the Nairnshire, they are taking forward proposals, ideas and requesting Freedom of Information concerning the Slide, the embankment, the seagulls. As these things are all pertaining to Nairn, not just one particular area, can we as a Community Council fully back the West and Suburban Councils?”

Brian Stewart from the Westies was present, he said: 

“I think it is welcome if all three community councils, in a sense join forces, and make the views of our residents plain to the local authority. On the gulls and the pigeons, which is not a freedom of information thing, it’s really, it’s something that comes up every year on all our councils in one way or another. We have recurrently urged the council to take a lead in coordinating some kind of strategy to control and ultimately get rid of the gulls.”

On the big slide issue Simon Noble said: “I have heard from a number of residents, total dismay at the removal of the slide, not only that but also complete removal of the mound where the slide originally was and a number of people have expressed total bemusement as to why the mound was then dismantled in the way that it was after the slide was taken away and after there was a furore about that.”

River CC members agreed unanimously to back their West and Suburban colleagues.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

courthouse lane and under Cawdor road bridge is just disgusting and an obvious health hazard,lines of pidgeon muck you just cant help walking on it
narook

Anonymous said...

*Rant on*
As far as the seagulls are concerned there`s no point trying to educate people to stop feeding them anymore as the signs at the beach aren`t working + they will just hang about the chippies anyway(their not daft!)They are supposedly a protected species, but they have now become a Health & Safety issue to all the residents of Nairn!
The only way is to remove the eggs to reduce the numbers, this will take years of effort to get the numbers down to an acceptable level. The Council have a responsibility to remove them from their properties, but they don`t seem to bother!
*Rant off*

Anonymous said...

if your going down that road, the pavement under the railway bridge at PJ Grants is as bad.

Anonymous said...

In Aberdeen the council pays for a man and his hawk to go periodically to the schools, people have said it is effective, it does move them on and interrupts nesting.
Businesses have to pay.

Anonymous said...

There is no point in culling gulls. This only creates a territorial vacancy which other birds will move into. The only answers are to remove or prick the eggs or to remove or restrict potential nesting sites. As anon at 08.12am says this will take several years but it is the only way, along with vastly reducing the food supply, to cut the numbers.

Anonymous said...

Nairn is a seaside town so why are some folk trying to kill the gulls? They have every right to be here. A nuisance, noisy, raiding bins, sounds like it's the people that are in the wrong place

I've yet to hear of any similar town that has managed to irradiate their seagulls to it seems to me that any such effort will be a huge waste of our money

I'm surprised no one has tried to make this a political issue like the Firhall bridge or the slide. Might we see the emergence of a new political party on the backs of the gulls No Gulls In Nairn?

Learn to live with them people and turn your attention to more important matters. Slide anyone?

consultation consultant said...

Could people not just take action themselves on any gulls nesting on their property instead of always wanting the council to do it for them. That way something might actually get done. This would also apply to the council who should tackle nests on properties for which they are responsible.
More likely is that we have another expensive 'consultation' and things just carry on as they have been.

Anonymous said...

Nairn Academy Have in the past had a man with a Hawk fly in the grounds. It helped I think but didn't eradicate the problem and I don't think it was cheap.

What happened to the plastic ones that blew about in the wind! HAHA

Anonymous said...

@ Anon 8:43am

"Nairn is a seaside town so why are some folk trying to kill the gulls? They have every right to be here. A nuisance, noisy, raiding bins, sounds like it's the people that are in the wrong place"

Are you havin a laff???

Open your eyes, we know that it`s a seaside town (we live here!) you could say the same about the gulls in that they should be @ sea & behave like ... well gulls!but we have allowed these flying rodents to encroach on every area of the town, have a look about the town streets & also up @ NT&County Hospital where they have made a hell of a mess!! this is meant to be a clinical environment & now it`s a constant battle with these manky, intimidating creatures! I`m not saying we need to eradicate them, just reduce the numbers to a controllable level as they don`t have any natural predators, so will continue to reproduce @ an alarming level ... *rant off (again)*

Anonymous said...

@ Anon 8:43
"Nairn is a seaside town so why are some folk trying to kill the gulls? They have every right to be here."

Open your eyes & wake up, Nairn is also a tourist destination!! .... the streets & buildings of Nairn are covered in their sh**e! plus they are now mating & will soon become very aggressive to anyone going anywhere near them ... sheesh!

Anonymous said...

When will folk realise that trying to control gull numbers is like suggesting we hold back the tide, it can't be done. They're protected birds so the options if you want to try are limited

Remove nesting sites. This means somehow doing this to every building in town, who would pay and how would you do it

Prick the eggs. Gulls might well lay a 2nd batch and even if successful the missing gulls would just be replaced by gulls from other areas

The only real option is learn to live with them