By Ashley Pemberton via SWNS
A town has been invaded by an “apocalyptic” swarm of up to 3,000 seagulls – despite being 30 miles from the nearest coast.
The scavenging winged terrors have flocked to a landfill site in Hyndburn, Lancs., where locals likened the scenes to those in Alfred Hitchcok’s 1963 horror movie The Birds.
Shocking video shows the huge numbers of seagulls flocking overhead with local houses, cars and gardens now being bombarded by bird poo.
Fed-up residents say they arrive first thing in the morning and stay til late at night – with some even fearing their presence is devaluing the value of properties in the area.
Gary Hough, 62, said: “There must have been 3,000 seagulls above my house on Wednesday this week. I’ve never seen anything like it.
“The gulls are here about 7am and head towards the tip and they come in dribs and drabs but start to congregate.
“Then from 8am onwards, that’s when the majority of them come and it’s just constant until around 9.30pm.”
Gary and partner Cheryl Gouldstone, 59, have lived in their £200,000 semi for eight years, but fear the plague of birds might devalue properties in the area.
They say birds have always been attracted to the site, but since last October it has got steadily worse and the issue has been turbo-charged since April.
Operator Suez has implemented mitigation measures, such as setting of loud noises to scare the birds.
But Gary says all that does is scatter the birds overhead and cause them to drop their mess on cars, washing and driveways.
He added: “It started to become such a concern and people were saying they were getting sick of it.
“The birds that have come have now nested so they’re here to stay. They’re breeding very quickly and from April, we’ve seen them multiplying.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, all these new birds that are breeding, it’s not like they’re coming from elsewhere.”
Cheryl said: “It’s like an Alfred Hitchcock film. There’s visual pollution, and noise pollution and people can’t believe this is going on.
“They set off pistol-like bangs to get rid of them, but all it does is scares them off in droves.
“You can’t sit in the garden as it’s covered in bird poo. They’re dropping food in the gardens.
“I drive home on the motorway and I know when I’m home because I see a swarm of seagulls above the road.”
Gary said he had a near miss in his car recently as another motorist was distracted by the birds.
He set up a Facebook page where locals can discuss their concerns and has organized a public meeting with landfill operators Suez and local councilors next month.
He added: “There’s always been a bit of a smell and the odd bird, but it’s never been like this.
“I have it on good authorities there’s rats there. So depending on where you live, you either have the birds, the smell, the rats or all three.”
Locals said the issue became worse last October when workers at the landfill began filling a disused quarry, which is closer to the houses in the area.
Greengates Builders Merchants backs on to the site and sees stock and staff cars bombarded with bird muck dropped from the seagulls.
Boss Steve Pickup, 60, said: “There’s thousands of them. It’s horrendous. Our staff can’t even go out at lunchtime and enjoy the nice weather.
“It’s a health hazard as much as anything, there’s that much bird muck and the smell from the tip is quite pungent as well.
“There’s a quarry next to the existing landfill site, which is much closer to the houses, and they’ve started filling that.
“They fly above with whatever food they find and it gets dropped on our yard. We had a driver once find a fish head on the back of wagon.
“It’s such an astonishing site for a lot of our customers, they can’t believe what they’re seeing and how many there is.
“A lot of our stock is covered in bird muck and we can clean most of it off, but some stuff we do have to throw away. Thankfully we have a big turnover of stock.”
Borough councilor Vanessa Alexander, who also lives near the tip, says her car is always covered in bird poo.
She has raised the issue with Lancashire County Council and the Environment Agency, who told her they’d had more than 140 reports from locals since July.
She said: “Part of the problem is the birds have nested, they’re not going away.
“They’ve changed the side of the tip they’re using so it’s closer to the housing.
“I live near the tip so I too suffer from bird poo on my car and house.
“The sheer amount of birds is horrific.
“As a borough council, our hands are tied in terms of having any powers, but we are putting pressure on the Environment Agency.
“We’ve written to the Environment Agency many times.
“There are things they can do, I think a fire break might be a good idea, where they close the tip and cover it for a bit to force the birds go elsewhere.”
Richard Phillips, landfill operations manager at SUEZ, said the firm was “actively working to deter” the seagulls and “minimize their impact on the local area”
He added: “We are currently deploying every measure within our plan to mitigate the number of seagulls in the area, which has increased following the migration of birds inland during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“And are working with the Environment Agency as well as independent specialist contractors to explore what further steps we may be able to take to address local concerns.”
The Environment Agency said it was carrying out regular visits to the site and checks on the impacts of odor and pests in the surrounding communities.
John Neville, of the Environment Agency, said: “We’re taking action to address issues at Whinney Hill landfill site and recognize the distress the odor and gulls are causing to members of the community.
“We have made it clear to the operator, Suez, that they must take steps to minimize the impact.
“We do have officers regularly within the community carrying out odor assessment.
“We’ll continue to carry out regulatory inspections of the site and will consider any appropriate enforcement steps to ensure the site is compliant with its environmental permit.”
