Aggressive birds in Newtown town centre are wreaking havoc by attacking people and causing mess inside properties.

A town centre employer, a hospitality business owner and a landlord have all raised concerns over problems caused by nesting gulls and “feral” pigeons.

Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn Town Council (NLlTC) heard from EvaBuild's health, safety and quality manager Stuart Jones about staff getting "divebombed" by gulls at their Ladywell Business Centre headquarters.

"It’s quite a problem for us," he said.

"It’s also an issue for Quartix staff; they’ve also been divebombed and hit by gulls.

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"We would like to rid them of food they might be feeding on and a wider attempt to clear the town centre.

"Rather than shift the problem somewhere else we thought it would be best for a joined-up approach."

Councillor Chris Jones said the all-year-round issue with nuisance birds is difficult to resolve but more needs to be done to “cure the problem”.

READ MORE: Powys pigeon plague 'wrecking' Newtown holiday property

He said: "As a Newtown East ward councillor, I have been approached by three separate individuals who have described the impact of bird behaviour on their livelihoods.

"These include attacks by gulls on employees entering and leaving a building and pigeons entering premises, causing mess and increasing the risk of disease.

"Discussions with these complainants have been positive, there is an awareness that there is little money to address this issue at a town or county level and an understanding that a solution is most likely to be found by businesses, landlords and NLlTC working together."

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He told councillors: “The issue of the gulls is difficult to resolve. Simply moving the problem on doesn’t solve the problem.

“It is a complex issue because gulls are on the red list but benefits of working with other businesses and residents in the town centre is to find where gulls are finding food and nesting and discourage nesting in a humane way.

“Pigeons are an all-year-round problem because they roost and breed. Mainly there is an issue with the maintenance of buildings.

“It’s not something the Town Council can do by itself or any individual. There needs to be a mutual approach to cure this problem.”

The town council agreed to suggest it as a suitable project for the Town Partnership to help those affected by the nuisance birds and find a solution to the problem.

Powys County Council has not provided a pest control service for almost 10 years when it was stopped due to budget cuts and no statutory requirement for them to provide the service.