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Nesting seagulls cost the NHS £100,000 after delaying work to demolish empty buildings at a major hospital. 

The birds were discovered in former accommodation blocks at the Royal Gwent Hospital, in Newport, which were due to be razed to the ground to make way for a new car park. 

Gulls are protected under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, meaning it is illegal to intentionally disturb them while nesting, unless granted a licence, and offenders can face prison. 

The nests, alongside a greater amount of asbestos in the buildings than originally anticipated, are forecast to cost the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) a total of £110,000. 

It has been reported as an overspend on the board’s budget for capital, or one off spending costs, funded from an All-Wales programme. 

In total, ABUHB’s projects under the All-Wales programme are predicted to come in £2 million over budget but it has been able to off-set that through its discretionary capital funding, which has a £2m underspend. 

A note to the board’s latest budget report states further survey works need to be completed by civil engineers before the Royal Gwent project can be confirmed. Work has yet to start on the car park extension. 

A spokesperson for ABUHB said it had delayed work due to seagulls nesting, with the buildings eventually demolished in October last year. 

The spokesperson said: “We can confirm that as the accommodation buildings at the Royal Gwent Hospital were vacant for many years and past the point of reasonable repair, they were demolished… to provide much-needed additional car parking space on the site. 

“As it was discovered that seagulls were nesting on the building, we sought advice from Natural Resources Wales to coordinate the demolition outside of nesting season so as to avoid any harm to the birds.”