Seagull droppings blamed for causing town's street lighting to stay on 24 hours a day

Seagulls are fooling street lights in Brighton into shining 24 hours a day – with their droppings. The birds are causing dozens of the city’s 19,000 lighting columns to shine all day, every day.

Brighton and Hove City Council admitted “day burners” were “not a good advertisement for the city” but claimed the lights did not cost the taxpayer any more due to the way energy was measured. The local authority has set out plans to replace orange and yellow lights with white ones which, it believes, will almost halve carbon emissions and running costs.



A dozen lights were spotted on by a concerned resident who claimed they had been on for seven months. The local authority said one of the reasons for “day burners” is that seagulls and other birds’ droppings mask the photocell on top of the metal posts which makes the system believe it is night time all the time.

Council workers said they relied on the public informing them about “day burners” as they only inspected at night. When they were informed, the local authority said it acted to resolve the situation quickly.