SEAGULLS are still making the lives of Dorchester residents a misery with efforts to alleviate the problem not doing enough, councillors have been told.

Last year the Echo said how county town residents living in Bridport Road and other streets near to Dorset County Hospital launched a petition urging something to be done about the birds.

And at Dorchester Town Council's annual meeting resident Ian Gosling, who lives on Trinity Street, raised his concerns about the seagulls.

He said the hospital, West Dorset District Council’s offices at South Walks House and other nearby offices had employed a falconer to limit the seagull population.

Mr Gosling said: “Many places have used a hawk trained to scare the seagulls away. But the hawk simply causes the seagulls to move elsewhere in the town.”

Also speaking to the Echo after the meeting, Mr Gosling said the roof of his house, which was re-done just last year, is covered with seagulls and seagull mess.

He said: “It’s now the time of year that seagulls are nesting and they become particularly aggressive for three months during this time.

My mother died in 2012 but before that she was always scared of leaving her house on Lancaster Road because she would get swooped on by seagulls.

“When I went to tidy her house after she passed away, I was also continuously swooped on by the birds.

“Because the issue was that bad I had to use an umbrella to enter and leave the house, and I know other nearby residents have done the same.

“It’s not an easy problem to deal with and I know that, but seagulls are really becoming a problem in Dorchester.”

Mr Gosling said the seagulls don’t go to the coast to fish or search for food because they can live off scraps of food from rubbish bags around the town.

He said one way to move them elsewhere would be to remove the seagull eggs and replace them with fake eggs.

At the meeting, town councillor Trevor Jones said the council would be holding a seagull summit event in June to bring together people concerned about the problem and investigate what can be done.

Mayor of Dorchester Peter Mann said he was aware of the seagulls being a problem for many people in the town.

Councillors also said the design of the new Dorset Waste Partnership litter bins meant the seagulls were getting hungrier because the bins were harder for them to access.

Councillors said getting rid of the seagull’s nesting sites and food supply meant they would go elsewhere.

Mr Gosling encouraged anyone with concerns about the seagulls to attend the town council’s seagull summit event in June.