A SCARBOROUGH councillor was attacked by a seagull while attempting to eat a cheese straw.

Cllr Godfrey Allanson (Con) told Scarborough Council’s overview and scrutiny board he and his granddaughter had twice been “mugged” by birds in Westborough.

“I went to Cooplands and got myself some cheese straws. I got one out of the bag and the seagull came down and snatched it. It was scary.”

He said the attack on his granddaughter had left her “frightened”.

The board wants to reduce the number of gull attacks, when birds often snatch food, as figures show 125 incidents in the Scarborough borough since 2016. Of these, 92 were in Scarborough, 25 in Whitby and eight in Filey.

Since 2017, the council has employed a firm to remove eggs and nests from town centre locations to try and move the gull populations back towards nesting on cliffs.

The board backed recommendations to continue the gull dispersal programme in 2019. The meeting heard people feeding the gulls was a big problem.

The council also agreed to contact the major suppliers of chip boxes to explore having messages, such as “don’t feed the gulls” printed on them.