A residential street has been turned into something resembling a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds by a plague of rowdy seagulls.

Increasing numbers of the seaside birds are gathering on the rooftops of properties in Rutland Gardens, Hove, terrorising the neighbours.

Now residents want to hit back by bringing in a falcon to scare away the unwanted visitors.

Scott Wilson, 32, says he is attacked by nesting gulls whenever he tries to open the roof window of his attic flat.

He says sharing his flat with the birds is becoming unbearable, as he is woken at 4am every day by their squawking.

One day, he returned home to find one of the birds had flown into his lounge.

He said: "I have lived here for seven years and the seagull problem has got progressively worse.

"Now, it has become intolerable. This year, they are nesting on a piece of flat roof outside my main lounge window and, because they are territorial, they get very vicious whenever I try to open it."

Scott Sale, 30, said: "The gulls are a real nuisance. I have become used to the noise but my parents are staying with me at the moment and they have been woken at 4am by the squawking.

"There certainly seem to be more of them around during the last couple of weeks."

Estride Cope, who has lived in the street for 20 years, said: "A few years ago we had them nesting on our roof and the noise was terrible. We were woken up at all hours."

Mr Wilson said the gulls are drawn to the area because of rubbish bins left on the streets, which the birds rip open to scavenge for food.

He wants Brighton and Hove City Council to provide residents with wheelie bins, so the birds cannot get to the rubbish.

Councillor Denise Cobb is calling for drastic action to rid the street of the nuisance.

She has written to the council suggesting a falcon be set loose in the skies above Rutland Gardens to scare off the gulls.

She said: "The falcon would act like a scarecrow, scaring the seagulls away. This is a serious problem for the residents and requires action.

"The noise has become intolerable for some people, especially those who work from home and hear nothing else all day but the seagulls."

Coun Cobb's suggestion has been welcomed by Mr Wilson.

He said: "Setting a falcon loose seems like a viable option. I don't agree with culling but it makes sense to scare the birds away."

The council was unable to confirm whether it had received Coun Cobb's letter.

A spokeswoman said: "We are looking at a variety of options to improve our refuse collection and one of those is the introduction of wheelie bins.

"We will be trialling this in parts of West Hove and Portslade in the coming months."