SEAGULLS have been barred from making a mess after new bins were installed and a town centre boss has said there is now ‘no excuse’ for mess in the town centre.

The newest change to the high street means that it now comes equipped with ‘seagull-proof’ bin flaps, which are designed to cut down rubbish on the streets.

The new bins have been in the works for years but have finally been installed – not just in the town centre, but throughout the borough.

Barrow BID boss Colin Garnett, who helped fund the seagull flaps, is glad that they are now in place.

He said: “We have been lobbying to get new bins in the town for a couple of years and Covid delays have meant that we have only just been able to get them in.

“The existing bins had come to the end of their life cycle and were looking a bit tatty and sometimes broken.

“So it is great to see the Council are putting new bins in the town centre.”

But Mr Garnett has now said that there is ‘no excuse’ for rubbish in the town centre, calling on residents to take responsibility to clean the town up.

“A lot of coastal towns already have seagull flaps attached to their bins, to prevent the wind whistling through the bins and taking rubbish out but also so that seagulls can not get in and rummage around,” he said.

“But we have got to send a message now that we want a clean town and we want people to take responsibility for their rubbish.

“People blame the open bins, wind and seagulls for all the rubbish in the town centre, so if we take away these external factors then they only have the people to blame – we want this to improve our town.”

And he wants it to be seen as part of a wider operation to make the town centre a nicer place to live, work and shop.

Over the past two weeks, meetings have been held with local businesses to discuss the recent spate of town centre vandalism that has occurred – from broken shop windows to graffiti on empty units, described at the time by business owner Jenny Fazackerley as ‘disappointing, selfish and unproductive’.

And the police have vowed to do more, upping town centre patrols and banning troublesome youngsters from premises in the town centre.

Mr Garnett finished: “We want it to be a cleaner, nicer place and we want people to be able to be proud of the town.

“We know that we have to start off the process with projects like this but we also want people in the town to take responsibility.”