A warning has been issued that the Queen could be a target for swooping seagulls during an official visit.

Councillor Tom Wakenshaw has suggested to Berwick Borough Council that an aide armed with an umbrella should accompany the royal visitor on a planned walkabout in the town centre.

He said he had recent experience of being covered when a seagull "unloaded its baggage" only a few yards from the town hall.

Mr Wakenshaw said it would be an embarrassment if the same thing happened to the Queen during her first visit to Berwick for more than 40 years.

Calls for cull

Councillors in Berwick have been looking at ways of controlling the growing population of herring gulls in the town.

But campaigners who successfully opposed a cull two years ago have called for the gulls to be saved.

Earlier this month, the Queen formally opened Glasgow's state-of-the-art Science Centre.

Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, she spent more than half an hour touring a number of the 300 exhibits, including a series of pods offering an interactive display on genetics and the human body.