Hook, line and sinker! April 1 ‘Seagull tax’ prank leaves Skegness divided
Some laughed, some groaned — and a few nearly believed it.
Readers in Skegness were well and truly hooked by today’s outrageous “seagull tax” story, our annual nod to April Fools' Day.
The tongue-in-cheek tale suggested officials were cracking down on the town’s feathered food thieves — but it didn’t take long for many to cry foul.
“April fool,” wrote several readers within minutes, while others clocked the date straight away: “1st April…………”
But not everyone was convinced.
“You joke, of course… but it wouldn’t surprise me for 1 minute if it were true,” one reader admitted — proving the prank may have been just believable enough.
Others leaned fully into the joke. “Where do they expect the seagulls to get their money to pay the fine?” one laughed, while another added: “Why not fine the seagulls?”
The story even sparked talk of the birds’ notorious antics, with one commenter describing how seagulls “ambush people by diving in swarms… just to nick their food”.
And for some, it was the sheer effort that impressed. “The effort just for an April fools ,” one reader wrote.
Of course, there’s no such thing as a seagull tax — at least not yet — but if today proved anything, it’s that in Skegness, truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction.