Birdman is a flight of fancy!

I must thank the council for the entertainment they have provided by the falconer.

He turns up with his beautiful blond assistant full of bravado. He goes on to tell his audience about how his birds might not fly back if he lets them go too far.

When he lets the birds go they fly to the nearest building where the gulls attack them before they fly back to the falconer.

The council has spent £18,000 on this exercise in public relations when the fishermen cannot get to sea because the council will not reform the shingle around the slipway. £18,000 would have purchased enough shotgun cartridges to cull all the gulls in the South West.

The falconer says the gulls will fly to the cliffs to make their nests now. What a joke. England have about as much chance as flying back with the World Cup as the gulls have to the cliffs.

Jim Massy

Temple St, Sidmouth