The RSPB today warned residents considering culling noisy herring gulls by smothering their eggs that they could be breaking the law.

The charity said members of Church Garden Residents' Association, Rustington, would be liable to prosecution if they went ahead with the idea.

Residents are being driven mad by noisy gulls, which open rubbish bags and dive-bomb people during the breeding system.

One suggestion to deal with the problem is to cover the birds' eggs with oil, which smothers them and stops the embryos developing.

But RSPB spokesman Keith Noble said the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 made it illegal to intentionally kill a herring gull or to destroy an active nest's contents.

He said: "If we heard about anyone taking such action we would treat it as an offence against the law. We would tell anyone who had witnessed this to contact the police."

He said the birds could only be culled to protect agriculture, on public health grounds or to conserve wild birds.

Mr Noble said: "Residents in Rustington would not be able to remove the eggs because they don't like the gulls' noise and mess or because they dive at people when their young are around.

"I am sympathetic to this but nuisance does not constitute a proper reason to kill the eggs."

He added: "Herring gulls may be a problem in some inland sites as they particularly like flat roofs, especially by the seaside.

"But in general their British population is declining. We should be protecting them, not killing them."

The egg-oiling proposition was put forward at a meeting of more than 180 residents at the Woodlands Centre, Rustington, on Tuesday by Guy Merchant, an expert in combating nuisance birds without culling them.

The Rev Patrice Sessions, chairman of Church Gardens Residents' Association, said today: "I have a licence application.

"But it is still early days and we have to make a democratic decision by all the residents."

If the egg-oiling went ahead, access hatches would have to be put in the roofs of some tall buildings.

The final decision will be made at a committee meeting in December.