Bins that are strong enough to resist the fierce beaks of the town’s growing population of herring gulls are particularly important on Masons Field in Tilling Green. This is an area used for recreation and sport and it is essential to prevent the birds foraging for food and becoming aggressive towards nearby young children.
A campaign to install gull-proof bins was started back in 2012 by Daliea Redman (retired Tilling Green Residents Association chair) when Rother District Council replaced gull-proof bins with open bins. The inevitable outcome was that the gulls used the easily accessible bins as a source of food, resulting in the birds attacking each other over the scraps and scattering rubbish around the park.
Rye Town Council’s public services committee wrote to Rother, only to be informed that neither the district council nor its contractors had found evidence of rubbish being scattered by gulls on their site inspection – and that the playground needed to be regularly cleaned.
The current residents association chair, Dan Lake continued the campaign when he took over the post in October 2013, regularly emailing Rother with correspondence containing photographs of the scattered rubbish.
The breakthrough came in February this year, when Rother advised that they would be replacing the bins. The new bins were installed last week.
Photo: John Wylie