Chasewater boating pool to be filled in because duck poo too expensive to clear
A boating pool at Chasewater is to be permanently filled in – because it is too expensive to clean the bird poo out.
Ducks and geese ended up settling at the pool next to the Innovation Centre after visitors were stopped feeding them near the edge of the reservoir.
But as a result, the bird poo built up in the pool, raising fears it was damaging protected plant life in the connecting reservoir and it was drained.
Now council bosses have said the pool, which once featured an island, will stay drained and will be filled in.
Councillor Mark Winnington, environment chief at Staffordshire County Council which own Chasewater, said: "When the county council took over the management of Chasewater in 2014 we found two problems with the model boating pool.
"One was that the valve which released water from the pool into Chasewater Reservoir was broken. The second was that because people were regularly feeding the ducks they had settled there and as there was no water flow the lake was silting up quite heavily.
"Chasewater Reservoir is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest because it has some nationally important features, including its aquatic plants, which we have a duty to preserve.
"Those plants thrive in certain conditions found in Chasewater Reservoir. So even if we repaired the valve, periodic heavy discharges of the silt could change the environment and damage the plants."
The county council drained the pool to clean it out but stated it would be to costly to do the same on a regular basis.
Lichfield District Council has granted permission for the lake, which was also used for canoeing, to be filled in, grassed and landscaped. Ideas as to what to do with it are now being touted with one proposal to create a 'fitness trail' being discussed.
Councillor Winnington added: "In the end we had to drain the pool and dig out the silt.
"That is too expensive to do every time so we have been granted planning permission to fill in the small pool and landscape the area.
"Burntwood and Norton Canes parish councils support the plan, county councillors Sue Woodward and Jeff Sheriff are contributing towards the work from their 'local fund' and we are looking at options for the site, including, perhaps, some sort of 'fitness trail'."
A sensory garden is being created at another part of Chastewater and the council has stated this is a separate project to the boating pool and will be unaffected by it being filled in.
