A councillor in Helston has suggested 'specimen prosecutions' to help fight rubbish which attracts seagulls before bin collection day.

School children and workers are having to walk past household and business waste, including soiled nappies, which gulls have torn to pieces before refuse collectors can make their rounds.

Councillor Jonathan Radford-Gaby said he had been out last Wednesday morning at around 6.30am and seen the rubbish strewn across the road, particularly in Wendron and Church Streets.

He said: "Some [people] seem to think it's acceptable to abandon sacks of waste ready for the dustmen at three in the afternoon.

"Coming up to the holiday season, it's absolutely revolting.

"It would take only one or two specimen prosecutions of local residents for word to get around, for people to realise that Cornwall Council and Helston Town Council will not accept that sort of behaviour."

Town clerk Chris Dawson said one business in the town centre has already been issued with a ticket by Cornwall Council officers, and mayor Mike Thomas added that council needed to check between 6.30 and 8.30 on Wednesday mornings or on Tuesday nights.

Cornwall Councillor Judith Haycock told Helston Town Council that the problem had been solved previously by sending leaflets to town residents to remind them that rubbish is their responsibility until it is taken away by refuse collectors.

She said: "We will be doing the same as last year, and hopefully we can resolve it as we did before."

Mayor Mike Thomas was told that the town's One Stop Shop currently had no black seagull proof rubbish sacks which it normally provides for £3.50 and councillor Haycock said that she would act on that immediately, while the mayor added that if residents wanted a sack but found they were unable to pay for one, the town council "will make sure we can help them."