Bins are being emptied later in the day in a seaside town to foil marauding seagulls.

West Norfolk Council is now emptying bins around Hunstanton in the evening, to cut down the supply of food for the birds during the day.

A council spokesman said: "Our services are flexible to meet the ever-changing needs of the seasons, so bins are emptied more often in the summer, and later in the day, to help residents and visitors alike to enjoy the resort from morning until night.

"The borough council and town council work closely together to ensure that services provided in Hunstanton best meet the needs of the town."

It comes after Hunstanton Town Council asked locals and visitors to stop feeding the birds.

The council is concerned that by feeding the birds scraps, people have encouraged them to try and snatch food, with one recently stealing a sandwich from a child's hand.

The chair of the council's environment committee, Robert Corby, said many seagulls were now learning to associate people with food.

"We understand that feeding gulls can seem like a fun activity, but it has serious repercussions,” he said.

"We urge everyone to enjoy the wildlife from a distance. Gulls are a key part of our natural environment in Hunstanton; help them to thrive naturally and not become a nuisance by behaving responsibly with food."

Warning posters have gone up around the town, and staff at seaside takeaways are being asked to pass on the message to customers.

Seagulls are natural foragers, working in noisy packs and routinely stealing from each other and other birds.

Experts at the British Trust for Ornithology say that when the birds swoop on people, they are not attacking, but trying to feed.

Feeding the birds chips can also cause them health problems. Numbers of one of our most familiar species, the herring gull, have declined by almost 40pc in recent years.