Scotland calls for nationwide summit after fears ‘deadly’ seagull could kill someone

Calls for Scotland-wide seagull summit amid warnings someone could get killed

Politicians are calling for a Scotland-wide seagull summit to be held amid warnings someone could be killed.

The former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross told the nation's parliament that people risk losing their lives over the "growing problem" of "nuisance" gulls.

Fellow Torry Rachael Hamilton claimed "aggressive" seagulls had attacked seven children in one month last year in Eyemouth, leaving one girl "with gashes to her scalp and blood running down her face," per Sky News.

Even though Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie had already promised to hold a seagull summit in the north of Scotland, Ms Hamilton, who represents the south of Scotland, demands a summit for the whole nation.

According to Ms Hamilton, the debate is important as she criticised what she deems as a lack of action from the Scottish government, telling the MSPs that "absolutely nothing" was being done to battle the problem.

"Aggressive seagull behaviour continues to cause a real concern amongst businesses, amongst tourists, amongst everybody that has anything to do with the harbour," she said about her constituency in Eyemouth.

One business owner even described the situation as "people being scared, attacked and traumatised".

The Highlands and Islands MSP said voters have told him that they were worried to leave their homes in fear of being "divebombed", while others have claimed to suffer mental health issues due to the lack of sleep caused by these noisy gulls.

He went on to accuse NatureScot of having a conflict of interest as the body responsible for both licensing to control birds and to conserve them.

He said: "The behaviour of the SNP's quango NatureScot, confirms they have lost the plot. They have told people to protect themselves with umbrellas and even suggested dogs as a deterrent.

"The time has come to break up NatureScot. There is a clear conflict of interest in the fact that they are responsible for considering licences to control gulls but are also responsible for protecting bird numbers."

He concluded: "The strength of the cross-party support in my debate today should be all the SNP government needs to finally act before we see someone killed due to being attacked by a gull."

Jim Fairlie agrees that the issue of the aggressive birds was "deadly serious", but claims he could not intervene on NatureScot to change the licensing system as it would leave the government open to judicial review.