A proposed city seagull cull in a busy tourist area has led to a bulging mailbag for its evening paper.

A survey in the Bath Chronicle found five out of six people who live in the city want rid of the troublesome birds.

More than 800 readers have so far registered their vote on the paper’s special phone line, which asks whether the seagulls should be culled or not.

The poll was organised after a new group – the Seagulls Are Not Us Society – was set up by traders because of the noise and mess being caused in the city centre and its suburbs.

And the message was clear, with 685 readers voting for a cull, and just 137 voting against.

The group’s members claim the birds are messy, unhygenic, damaging, dangerous and noisy.

But people who are defending the birds believe that no amount of annoying behaviour from the gulls should result in a cull – which they claim would be difficult to carry out and unjustified in the eyes of the law. They claim ‘nuisance’ would not be enough to sanction killing a seagull or any other bird.

They have also pointed out in the Chronicle that the birds are due to migrate in a few weeks anyway.

But the debate has stirred up huge interest. Since The Chronicle tackled the issue with a series of articles last week, the phone lines have been red hot with calls and the postbag has been bulging.

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