NEARLY a thousand people in Devizes fed up with squawking and messy gulls have responded to a survey set up to try and solve the menace of the birds.

In just a few weeks more than 900 people responded and the vast majority backed a campaign to remove gull eggs next spring to reduce their numbers.

Wiltshire councillor Laura Mayes and town councillor Kelvin Nash set up the on-line survey and are now determined to use its findings to help get a licence to cull the gulls.

The survey found that out of the 905 who filled in the form 838 had notice an increase in gull numbers and 809 supported the human removal of eggs.

A significant number of people reported serious health, work and lifestyle problems associated with rapidly increasing seagull numbers.

They spoke of disturbed sleep, damage to their homes and cars and an impact on mental health.

Cllr Mayes said: “We will use this as evidence when we make our application to Natural England for a licence to remove eggs for the 2021 breeding season.

“Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey.”

Among those who have been fighting to get the number of gulls reduced for more than a year is Karen Brown, who lives near London Road.

She said: “The gull problem is as bad as last year, if not worse. They are constantly noisy, continuing well into the night and then before light in the morning. They have begun their extra noisy morning flight training for the young birds this past week or so and therefore mornings are especially bad, from 3am onwards.

“We have had to purchase a large garden-size parasol to allow us to safely enjoy our garden and, even with this up, a bird then aimed at the car, this rebounding off and into the garden, hitting the dog, table and both my husband Graham and our daughter with foul-smelling mess.

“We are no longer able to park our cars in the parking spaces beside the back garden for this reason.”

She said that one neighbour had a meal destroyed when he, his partner and their food was showered with gull excrement. They no longer feel safe to sit in their own back garden.

Another neighbour watched on in horror as a gull went about eating a songbird on the ground beneath their front window.

She said: “These coastal birds are not indigenous to this area and we are at risk of losing already threatened local species due to the excessive and increasing numbers of ‘sea’ gulls in Devizes.”

She backed Cllr Mayes and Cllr Nash for starting the survey and urged people to continue to protest to allow Devizes Town Council to collect as much information as possible to present to Natural England which clamped down on issuing licences to allow gulls to be culled after TV presenter Chris Packham urged a review.