Nearly 400 gull eggs were removed from Peterhead last year in a crackdown on the menace posed by the nuisance seabirds.
Figures released by Aberdeenshire Council highlight the growing scale of the problem facing the north-east’s biggest town.
Shoppers have reported being attacked by the birds and some residents have needed hospital treatment for gull-inflicted injuries.
An explosion in the breeding population of the birds led the local authority in 2014 to launch an initiative to combat the menace.
Laws allow council workers to remove eggs and nests from roofs in the town and a full trial was carried out last year to test the policy’s effectiveness.
A total of 171 nests and 378 eggs were removed from the area around Drummers Corner, Marischal Street, Chapel Street and Prince street last year before they were ready to hatch.
In a report to the Buchan area committee, Suzanne Robertson from the council’s business development team said: “Nuisance gulls have been a growing issue in Peterhead in recent years, with rising numbers of birds breeding in the town centre.
“Conflict over food leads to attacks on people in the town centre, some of which resulted in injuries which needed hospital treatment.”
She said last year’s gull controls have “significantly reduced” the number of birds in the town centre in 2017 and the number of complaints has also fallen.
She added: “People felt safer in the town centre.”
Work in Peterhead has now inspired wider gull controls across Aberdeenshire including a “survivors guide” to living with urban gulls which has been taken up by Aberdeen City Council.
Previously Aberdeenshire Council has hired falconers to patrol the centre of Peterhead in a bid to use hawks to frighten off aggressive gulls.
The scheme had mixed success – although the increased visibility of action against the menacing birds proved popular with the public, gull behaviour quickly returned to normal after they become used to their new neighbours.
Councillors on the Buchan area committee will consider the findings at their town meeting on Tuesday morning.
