Gull: “No comment”

A rescue by Hastings fire-fighters was watched by HOT reporter Joe Fearn.

At around 4.45pm on the evening of Friday 23 March, eagle-eyed staff at The Creative Media Centre on Robertson Street in Hastings town centre spotted a herring gull trapped in the low narrow guttering that runs between CMC and the adjoining Frenz Bar. CMC alerted the Hastings RSPCA and the fire brigade arrived with an Aerial Lift Platform (ALP). As one fire-fighter operated the ALP another climbed onto the platform whilst his ascent was watched by an appreciative crowd outside the Post Office on Cambridge Road. Once on the roof, the fire-fighter from Hastings Fire Brigade threw a cover over the gull and popped it into a cardboard carrier provided by an on-looking officer from the RSPCA.

The herring gull, Larus argentatus, has suffered moderate declines over the past 25 years and over half of their UK breeding population is confined to fewer than ten sites in the whole of the UK. The RSPCA officer told me that the gulls are now on the ‘Red List’ and are a protected species. With the rescue complete I asked the RSPCA representative what would happen to the bird. She informed me that the gull would be driven to a safe place and released. The gull was unavailable for comment.

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