A four-month trial of seagull-proof rubbish sacks in Burnham-On-Sea has come to an end after councillors this week decided not to continue them.
Burnham-On-Sea.com reported here in July that residents were being offered the new seagull-proof rubbish bags in an attempt to reduce the amount of litter strewn across streets by gulls tearing apart plastic sacks.
The Town Council began a trial in partnership with Somerset Waste Partnership to give away a small number of the gull-proof sacks made of strong material.
However, Cllr Nick Tolley told a meeting of the council’s Town Improvements Committee on Monday evening (November 18th) that the bags are not practical in a windy seaside town.
“We do have a problem here in Burnham with gulls ripping rubbish bags apart. I suffer greatly from this issue every week,” he said.
“The gull bags do work – they are wonderful, but a key problem with them is that unless you are there at the moment they are emptied to fold the sack back up and take it back in, they create another kite festival!”
“They fill up with wind very quickly. Mine kept blowing away. I can’t see they will be effective around our town unless people have something like rings bolted to their house for the refuse collectors to tie them on and prevent them flying away.”
“They do stop the gulls getting in but if we supplied them to residents we would be in an ever-decreasing circle, facing financial dismay in replacing them every week.”
“We haven’t had many requests for them so I don’t think we shoudl not go ahead with them any futher.”
Town councillors agreed to end the trial.
