Morrisons Supermarket have shown North Ayrshire Council the way to defeat scavenging seagulls.

Largs Community Councillor Andrew Adrain, brought the committee’s attention to a new type of bin being used outside of the supermarket. He said they were of a good design which meant the seagulls could not penetrate to take food and packaging.

Councillor Ian Murdoch agreed, saying that Morrisons had beaten the council to acquiring more effective refuse bins.

Mr Murdoch has campaigned for the introduction of new bins, and has often complained that the bins introduced on the promenade and town centre were not gull-proof.

Patricia Perman commented that she would like to see the owners of fast food places being encouraged to speak personally to their customers about not feeding the birds.

She said: “Get the chip shops to tell people ‘ don’t feed the seagulls. it would be more effective than just putting up posters in the shops.” On a lighter note council chairman Douglas Blair asked why he had been given the task of picking up a dead seagull during the community council’s recent beach clean.

“It was really heavy” he added. Mr Murdoch said: “That was because it was full of chips.” Mr Blair had a dig at the lunch-time activities of Largs Academy pupils when he pointed out that you could follow their trail by the amount of litter they left behind.

Meanwhile, it has been claimed that seabirds are at a greater risk from offshore wind turbines, like the test turbines at Hunterston, than was originally believed.

A report by the University of Glasgow stated that birds like gannets were thought to fly below the height stipulated for turbine arms. However, the report says that they believe the birds fly higher, endangering thousands.