Visitors who insist on feeding seagulls have turned parts of Dartmouth town centre into a 'nightmare' zone for the people who work there, a town councillor has warned.

And he has appealed for the district council to send out seagull patrol officers to tell people to keep their food to themselves.

The worst area is the South Embankment where tourists insist on feeding the hungry birds despite signs asking them not to, said Cllr Les Barnes.

'If you go down there when these people are feeding gulls you come away whitewashed,' he warned fellow councillors.

Now the town council asking South Hams to put up bigger 'No Feeding' signs so visitors get the message.

Said Mr Barnes: 'Along the South Embankment, because of the number of tourists feeding the seagulls, it has become an absolute nightmare for people trying to work there.

'The notices are so small, people don't see them.

'Is there any way that South Hams Council can put up bigger notices – or perhaps even send out patrols along there, to stop people feeding the seagulls.'

Now his fellow councillors are calling on South Hams Council to put up bigger signs making it clear that people should not feed the pesky gulls which have become so greedy they have been known to snatch food out of the hands of surprised tourists and intimidate young children.

The feeding goes on despite notices and signs on public benches and lampposts across the town centre.

Dartmouth district councillor Melvyn Stone said he had once had to help an elderly man, who was bleeding from his scalp, to the nearby community hospital after he had been pecked on the 'crown of his head' by a seagull.

He said the man had had to have stitches in the wound.

And he added that he once found a family with whole loaves of bread ready to feed to the gulls. He told councillors he had told them to read the notices and warned them 'if they were going to feed the seagulls they should buy a helmet'.