DUMPED food and rubbish is causing seagulls and pigeons to flock to Worcester in huge numbers, the city council has warned.

Council officials have revealed that 150 seagulls already inhabit Worcester and that number is growing by 14 per cent every year.

"We get complaints about them fouling and swooping down, especially on young children," said Roy Fidoe, head of environmental health at the city council.

"It's becoming a national problem and we also get many complaints about the noise they make."

He pinpointed food and litter discarded in the streets as tempting the birds to stay in the city.

Martin Gillies, principal environmental health officer at Worcester City Council urged people to bin their rubbish to stamp out the increase in the number of birds in the city centre.

"In order to stop an increase in the city centre's bird population, we need to ensure that food debris is discarded appropriately and not thrown on to streets and pavements," he said.

"Such leftovers are rich pickings for pigeons and seagulls."

He said council officers were aiming to highlight the problems caused by a large pigeon and seagull population in a bid to keep their numbers down.

"We also want to ask people to have more respect for the city by not dropping litter at such an excessive rate.

"In order to look after our environment we all need to take responsibility for it.

"We are now a 24-hour society, and although there are cleaning resources operating from 5am to 7pm on a daily basis, fast food operators and seagulls work even longer and seven days a week."