BIRDS of prey are being used to scare off seagulls at a tip in a bid to appease angry neighbours.

Complaints over huge flocks of seagulls at Whinney HIll household waste centre in Hyndburn, have led to the drastic action, which sees a team of five peregrine falcons operate at the site.

There has also been £1million investment to tackle the notorious smell from the landfill site, with ‘capping’ and methane extraction now increased.

Steve Tattersall, the site manager for SITA, said that enough energy is now being generated through methane to constantly power 6,000 homes.

And he said that the work has seen more than 100 complaints per year drop dramatically.

He said: “We have cleaned up our act and I think we have broken the back of our problems.

“We were getting a lot of complaints and we decided to tackle it head on so we have spent more than £1million capping and restoring the site over the past 18 months. The feedback we have received has been great.

"The engineering work has meant that we can extract much more methane, producing 3.6 megawatts per hour and also reducing the smell.”

But he said it is the cast of peregrine falcons at the waste site that had really attracted the attention.

Mr Tattersall said: “We have five of the falcons on duty at any one time.

“Of course they are birds of prey so they are very effective at dealing with the large numbers of seagulls that have been upsetting the residents.”

The Whinney Hill site covers more than 83 hectares.