JOHN CRAWFORD
JOHN trained at Saltcoats Burgh in the late 60s. After a decade he moved to PD Beatwaste Ltd/ Wimpey Waste Management Ltd. He then joined the Civil Engineering Dept at Strathclyde University before posts at Renfrew, Hamilton, Inverness and
East Ayrshire Councils. A Fellow of CIWM, he served on their Scottish Centre Council from 1988-2009. He is a Fellow of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland and was their President between 1991-92.
Gull control
OUR article about Worcester City Council trialing ‘Bigbelly’ units to stop gulls scavenging litter bins (September 2018) reminded me that in Inverness we used wheeled bins as inserts for our litter bins (we pinched the idea from Blackpool Borough Council) so that our street sweepers didn’t have to manhandle bags of litter. But we’d also had a problem with gulls’ droppings deterring the public from using litter bins and we’d also had to modify the lids.
Gulls were a big issue in Inverness: because the airport authorities were very concerned about bird strikes, the planning consent for our nearby landfill required all tipping to be inside a giant net to stop gulls and crows feeding there. The net was supported by six large masts on concrete rollers. The net had three closed sides, a roof and a side with an opening for vehicles to get in and out. The rollers ran along pre-formed roads that were also the sides of our tipping cells. As these were the days before landfill tax, we had enough inert waste coming in every day to build roads for the rollers to run on.
But of course it wasn’t 100% effective. The crows soon worked out to get in and out through the vehicular opening. Gulls could get in but weren’t clever enough to get back out and often got stuck on the side netting so our staff had to release them; not an easy job given their razor- sharp beaks.
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Gull control has taxed many of the best brains in our industry. It was once claimed that the demise of our fishing fleets meant gulls no longer went to sea to feed but I always thought it was more to do with all the half-eaten takeaways littering our streets that provided them with alternative food sources.
Some landfill operators trying to control gulls have used predators such as an eagle owl (I felt sorry for the handler who had to patrol the site with such a large heavy bird on his arm) or a Harris Hawk (I always wonder if the BBC’s Wimbledon team know that when they show photos of the one they use to ‘keep pigeons away’, its talents include taking the head off a gull in full flight).
Other colleagues trying to control gulls
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Some landfill operators trying to control gulls have used predators such as an eagle owl or a Harris Hawk.
and pigeons in a town centre once tried using a falcon, but when released it immediately flew into the town hall steeple, grabbed a pigeon and settled in the main street to devour it alive in front of shocked shoppers.
Another colleague was once given an ultimatum by his site regulator to ‘deal with the gull problem on your landfill or else.’ He knew that the birds were a protected species and couldn’t be killed without a special licence. He obtained the application form for the licence, faxed it off one morning to the Scottish Government and sent one of his staff out to buy a shotgun. He had the licence faxed back before the shotgun was delivered!
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