Should they stay or should they go? Environment Editor Tony Henderson talks to the North’s kittiwake expert.

FOR decades Dr John Coulson has kept a log on the Tyne of the behaviour of the rivers’s nesting kittiwakes. Having studied the Tyne’s kittiwakes for 58 years, he is in a prime position to deliver a verdict on the current controversy over proposals to move the nesting birds from the Tyne Bridge.

Newcastle City Council and the city development company 1NG paid £5,000 to put together a report that claims the birds are putting off businesses and visitors.

A Quayside regeneration study made for the city development company reads: “Our consultations have revealed growing concern about the environmental impact of kittiwake nesting sites including the Tyne Bridge and the Guildhall.

“In the spring and summer of 2010, it was clear that the mess and smell caused by the birds is simply not compatible with the aspiration to create an outstanding urban waterfront.“

It calls for “creative thinking” to encourage the kittiwakes to move to a less sensitive site.

There have been counter claims that the birds are themselves a visitor attraction and are a world-first for Newcastle and Gateshead as the Tyne is the most inland nesting colony of kittiwakes in the world.

Its nearest competitor is a colony on cliffs a mile inland in Greenland.

Dr Coulson, author of a book on kittiwakes that will be published later this year, was a reader in ecology at Durham University.

He warns that moving the birds from the Tyne Bridge is likely to merely transfer what is a perceived problem to other buildings nearby.

If the birds are shifted, he suggests the building of an artificial, ledged riverside nesting “cliff” cantilevered over the river to solve the problem of bird droppings.

With the addition of a hide and observation platform, the cliff could double as an educational resource for school parties and a visitor draw.

“It would cost money but then it also costs money to clean the streets of droppings,” he says.