Agriculture minister aims to take ‘heat’ out of talks ahead of seagull summit

The minister for agriculture has said he wants to take the “heat” out of seagull population discussions ahead of a summit on managing the birds.

Jim Fairlie is holding a seagull summit in Inverness on Tuesday after complaints about increasing populations.

The talks will bring together council officials, NatureScot, waste management firms and community groups.

The Scottish Government has announced that funding of £100,000 will be given to councils to control seagulls.

The funding will come from NatureScot and will allow for the use of deterrents including lasers, noise, roof spikes and netting designed to stop nesting.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland, Mr Fairlie said: “This £100,000 is specifically about coordination and collaboration of local authorities… This is just the start of the process to work out how we’re going to manage them.

“We need to understand habitats, we need to understand populations, we need to understand where their populations are growing, why that is bringing gulls into conflicts with humans and how we mitigate those problems. That’s what the start of this process today will give us that information.”

Mr Fairlie also said he wants to take the “heat” out of the discussion after former parliamentary business minister Jamie Hepburn clashed with Tory MSP Douglas Ross over the issue.

Mr Ross raised the problem in Holyrood last week, holding up the final vote of the Scottish Government’s justice reforms legislation while victims were in the public gallery.

The pair clashed as they left the chamber, after Mr Hepburn took issue with the timing of Mr Ross in raising the problem.

The former Scottish Tory leader claimed he was “physically assaulted and verbally abused” by the minister.

Mr Hepburn denied the allegation of assault but resigned on Friday after saying he had fallen short of his “personal code of practice”.

Mr Fairlie said: “I want to have achieved a rational discussion with all of the heat taken out of the discussion, the politicking to stop and to allow us to actually look at how do we take this issue seriously find the solutions and move forward.”

Mr Ross has voiced disappointment with the Scottish Government’s handling of seagull issues.

He said the summit on Tuesday should not be “closed door” and that the funding made available is “pitiful.”

The Scottish Conservative Highlands and Islands MSP said: “This pitiful funding announcement sums up how detached SNP ministers are from the reality facing communities across Scotland.

“This will be more taxpayers’ money squandered if SNP ministers and quango bosses do not urgently change their approach.

“Yet Jim Fairlie has decided this meeting should be a closed-door talking shop between him and NatureScot bosses rather than hearing directly from those who have suffered as a result of these birds and those living in constant fear of being attacked by gulls.”