While Birmingham battles against its infestation of seagulls, all is quiet at the city's favourite seaside resort in Somerset.
Weston-super-Mare seafront manager Darren Fairchild said the gulls on his patch caused very few problems.
"There has been a trend in the last few years where seagulls move away from seaside areas into towns,” said Darren. “I think that’s because of the food source.
“We’ve probably only had a couple of complaints in the last five years about seagulls. We don’t see it as a problem at the moment.
“They’re part of the seafront ambience, seagulls.”
Birmingham City Council pest controllers have vowed to fight back against the winged menace, who stand accused of stealing food from the hands of children and swooping on innocent bystanders.
They plan to replace their eggs with artificial ones to fool the birds to stay in their nests.
A six-month trial begins in the Jewellery Quarter next month – the area where most people have complained.
Darren said: “Don’t get me wrong, if someone spills their chips the gulls would notice pretty quickly. But they don’t tend to harass people. Perhaps we’ve trained them better.
“I assume the reason they’re coming into Birmingham is because they’re hungry and they’re naturally scavengers.
“We’ve got a more natural food source for them and they don’t need to look for it quite so hard.
“I don’t feel it’s necessary to put signs up about not feeding them. From a seafront management point of view, I don’t want to plaster the seafront with lots of signs saying ‘don’t do this,’ ‘don’t feed the seagulls,’ ‘don’t enjoy yourselves’.
"We don’t want to make it a ‘don’t do’ environment."
Bins on the seafront are also lidded and emptied regularly by an army of barrowmen, said Darren.
“I’m not saying Birmingham is untidy,” he added. “We’re proud of the appearance of the seafront – it’s the jewel in the crown.”
