A Daily Express columnist has claimed Guildhall bosses have “given up” on tackling the seagulls that now “have more rights than Bath residents.”

Tim Newark is calling on the council to lobby Government for powers to curb the bird population, and said he will go to Downing Street himself if he has to. 

The freelance journalist and author moved into a home in Barton Buildings his family has owned since the 1980s nine years ago. He will not eat outside and no longer uses his garden because of the gulls and the “public health risk” from their excrement. He wants all properties to be ‘bird-proofed’ and said B&NES Council, a major landowner in the city, should lead by example. 

Mr Newark, who has a weekly politics column in the Daily Express, said: “It’s got worse. All you hear is the screech of gulls. The noise level is quite extreme. It really puts you off sitting outside. 

“It’s a very irritating and intrusive noise. If a person or a business was doing that you could complain to the council and they would do something about it. It’s so frustrating. It spoils summer in Bath for residents. 

“We have a little garden and we’ve stopped using it. We have to shut the windows. It’s absurd – it’s 24 hours a day. I won’t sit outside with food.

“The Council has given up.”

Mr Newark added: “We should go to Defra [the Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] and get them to change the law to get urban gulls removed from the list of protected species. I’ll go with them.” 

The population of gulls in Bath stood at 835 breeding pairs in 2018, down by around a quarter since 2015.  B&NES Council said this was driven by a nest and egg removal treatment programme and the large-scale developments going on in the city that are helping to disrupt favoured nesting sites by the gulls. NBC is licensed to carry out treatments for reasons of public safety and health.

All major Council buildings are treated, including the Guildhall. 

S. Sumner, LDRS