Scarborough faces difficulties with ‘seagull thefts’ due to an increase in urban seabird population.

Such a scene has become an almost daily spectacle on the Scarborough seafront, said Amy Watson, a supervisor at the Fishpan restaurant, where hungry herring gulls lurk for their quarry.

With the summer holidays in full swing, seaside authorities across England are grappling with an annual influx of chip-pinching gulls – and the surge of complaints.

There were 220 reports of gull incidents on the Yorkshire coast, stretching from Whitby to Filey, between 2021 and June this year, according to figures from North Yorkshire council. Two-thirds of these related to “attacks” and “gull muggings”.

For some, the birds are as entwined with the charm of the seaside as ice-cream and penny arcades. For others, they are a smelly menace. “Oh God! They’re horrible!” said Shirley Durham-Hughes, a volunteer at the North Yorks Art School shop and creative hub in Scarborough.

Durham-Hughes, 69, lives and works in the town and says the gulls are to be tolerated, not treasured. “I like the sound – it’s part of living by the coast – but they are a pest. I think they’re pretty awful.”

It may not be obvious from a walk down Scarborough promenade but herring gulls and kittiwakes – two of the species commonly known as seagulls – are at risk of extinction in Britain.

A combination of overfishing, warmer seas and offshore windfarms have caused such a decline in their numbers that they are now “red listed” as birds of conservation concern.

Yet in Scarborough and other towns, their flock is soaring. A yearly census shows the number of occupied kittiwake nests in the resort has risen from 1,527 in 2005 to 2,127 this year – a 39% increase.

The most dramatic increase, though, has been among those setting up nests on hotels, shopfronts and other buildings: a 1,318% increase since 2005, when there were just 78 occupied urban nests compared to 1,106 this year, according to Scarborough Birders, whose figures are published by the British Trust for Ornithology.

The number of herring gulls is more difficult to count, but North Yorkshire council said there had been a “perceived increase” in their number – and a rise in complaints.

The main reason for the increase in urban areas is simple, said Nick Addey, the chair of Scarborough Birders: “People started feeding them.” He added: “It’s just a human thing but for gulls it’s an easy meal. And what they do at sea is they snatch.”

Seafronts across England have signs warning tourists not to throw chips for gulls – but for many it is part of the day out. And younger gulls have learned that the easiest meal is often from humans rather than at sea. “It’s about education,” said Addey. “But is it too late?”

Another reason seabirds are migrating inland is, simply, that hotels are more pleasant than cliffs. They are less exposed, closer to easy quarry, and away from predators at sea. The closure of a local landfill site, a favourite gull-lunching spot, is also thought to have contributed to their rise in the town.

Eating chips on a bench at Scarborough’s south bay beach, one day tripper, Peter Ellis, shooed a persistent gull away from his five-year-old daughter, Katrina-Rose. “They’re an absolute pest,” said Ellis, 51. “I don’t know what use they are to the ecosystem.”

Even Addey, a gull ally, admits they have a PR problem. “I think leave them alone in the right areas,” he said. “But for their own sake, for their PR, it’s best that there is some gull-proofing.”