GENERATIONS of children have enjoyed feeding the ducks at the community-owned Crowmere Lake in Frodsham – but a conservation expert has hinted the birds should now be given their marching orders.
Ian Doyle, conservation officer for the Prince Albert Angling Society, said ‘clearing the ducks’ may help refurbish the popular beauty spot he claimed was now ‘so heavily silted it is verging on polluted’.
Mr Doyle told Frodsham Town Council: “Cheshire Wildlife Trust put it to me that if I was to talk to you we might come up with some kind of partnership to put the lake right.”
Crowmere was ‘in a bad state’, he added, but the angling society – one of Europe’s leading fishing clubs with more than 200 waters – was ready to help refurbish the lake in return for some form of fishing rights.
However, Cllr Lynn Riley was rattled by talk of getting rid of the ducks.
She said: “We’ve got all sorts of different things going on at Crowmere and when I see how many children go there to feed the ducks, clearing them out might be a retrograde step.”
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Doyle said: “Ducks and fish are not the ideal partners.
“Ducks graze on the bottom and disturb the sediment, and people throwing bread in to feed them can pollute the water.
“If there’s only a couple of ducks it’s not a problem, but when I was down there I saw quite a few ducks and when you start getting groups of them it becomes an issue.
“Clearing them would have to be properly discussed but, if that’s the case, my preference would be to capture the ducks and move them on.”
Mr Doyle claimed Crowmere needed a ‘complete refurbishment’.
He said trees lining the lake stifled marginal growth and surrounding kerbstones meant there was no transitional area between the water and banks and no natural habitat for things like newts and toads.
He spoke about changing the fish stock in the lake, currently full of big carp which encouraged antisocial anglers intent on catching the potentially valuable fish.
The society was interested in developing an educational feature at Crowmere, perhaps working with local primary schools.
The council agreed to continue talks with the society with a view to establishing a maintenance programme for the lake, and mayor Andrew Dawson suggested Mr Doyle might check out other waters in Frodsham, including Saltworks Farm.
However, he stressed Crowmere was part of a charitable trust held by the town council for the benefit of all Frodsham residents, and there was also ‘no question of exclusive access for one group’.
Mr Doyle said: “A lot of improvements could be made, but I’m not talking about hundreds of fishermen turning up there, because it’s not big enough. I’m thinking more of a lad-and-dad thing.”
