Residents Help Save Local Pond
09 September 2011 by Paul RhoadesIn the early 1980’s Scunthorpe Model Boat club approached the then Scunthorpe Borough Council (the forerunner of North Lincolnshire Unitary Authority) with a view to finding a suitable site on which to sail their model boats.
After much deliberation, in 1983 the council decided to dig out a settlement pond at a disused sewerage works on the eastern edge of the town, and to add a concrete apron to it so that the model boat enthusiasts had somewhere safe for children to sail their boats.
Due to the nature of the land, the pond soon drained, so a feed pipe was connected to a nearby drainage system collecting rainwater and was used to feed the pond. Measuring 103 meters by 48 meters this oval pond was also stocked with fish and became a very popular location for anglers.
Over the years many children learned to fish at what became known locally as “concrete pond”. Parents were happy to let them do so as this provided a safe environment away from the disused mine workings (less than a mile away) in which 3 children have drowned in the last 11 years.
Over time, the stocking density of the pond became very high so even the most inexperienced angler was guaranteed a bite within no time at all. Just the environment you want for budding anglers, water safety and plenty of fish.
Situated on the edge of a housing estate which has been developed over the last 20 years, the lake became popular not just with anglers, but also with local residents, dog walkers and wild life enthusiast. The lake is home to 6 pairs of nesting swans, a heron and a myriad of ducks and other aquatic birds such as moorhens and gulls.
As you can imagine, this was a refuge of tranquillity for residents, anglers and wild life, summer weekends and bank holidays would see small camps around the pond as anglers night fished. The area became such an attraction that anglers would travel a good distance locally to use the pond, with some families travelling from as far away as Milton Keynes due to the safety and number and variety of fish their children could catch.
All this ended in July of this year.
In late June residents began reporting that Concrete Pond was starting to dry out. The initial response they received from the council was less than welcoming, they were told that the concrete lining may have failed and the council denied the fact that it had any feed pipe providing it with water.
The situation turned critical on Sunday the 3rd of July, as the water level had been falling rapidly since the previous week. Now it was becoming clear that fish were suffering and hundreds of them were being washed up on the banks as mud and other debris were exposed.
Members of the public began lobbying the council, sending in photographs and trying desperately to galvanise the authorities into action. Finally, on the 7th of July the local fire brigade began pumping water into the pond from the nearby Emmanuel beck, just 45 meters to the south of the pond. The council then organised for a local fishery to catch as may of the fish as they could using an electric netting method which took place on the 12th.
The pond was then left, but water levels continued to drop once again, it became apparent that there were still hundreds of fish left in the pond. Again anglers and members of the public working with the local ward councillor, lobbied the council and eventually the electro fisher was called back to the pond. Now due to the water level and the thick mud, the fish catcher had real difficulties, and after just a few hours the rescue was abandoned leaving once again lots of dead fish.
The disaster was now starting to affect other animals which used the pond, as the dead fish were exposed on the mud, birds were starting to land on the mud and become stuck in mud and old lines which had laid on the bottom of the pond. The smell coming from the mud and dead fish permeated your clothes and stung your eyes.
The council came out again, and this time cleared away the dead fish.
A final rescue attempt was made after the water had dropped leaving just two pools of water, this time it was much more successful leaving just a few very small fish which were practically impossible to net. In total, over the three visits in excess of 3,000 fish were removed by the electro fishing team assisted by local anglers.
We now had a large bowl of mud, and immediately it was attracting all the wrong types of attention from the local youths, so after a heads up to the local community police team, and a few more calls from residents and the local ward councillor, the council erected a large fence around the area.
The question now was what to do about the concrete pond? It was clear from the local town council that they were not interested as they were adamant that the land was to be built on, so there was “little point” in doing anything. This did not please either residents or anglers knowing that they’d be left staring at a large bowl of stinking mud for what would probably be the next 10 years.
In an attempt to bring together the community, and the anglers a facebook group was established This proved instantly popular being promoted through the VisitScunthorpe.Com community blog and gained over 100 members within the first week.
This was followed by the formation of an ad-hock committee who took advice from Voluntary Action North Lincolnshire about how best to form a pressure group to act on behalf of the users of the lake. It was decided that if there was enough interest then a properly constituted support group called “Friends of Ashby Pond” should be set up. The first public meeting was well attended, 26 members of the public turned up along with the leader of the council, a cabinet member and an officer from the planning department. The local Community Police Sergeant James Main also came and gave a short presentation to parents about water safety, reminding them of the 3 deaths in 11 years which had occurred at the near by iron stone workings.
The group asked local ward councillor Andrea Davison to chair the meeting which proved to be very successful.
At the meeting several members of the public spoke and explained how they felt that remediation work being carried out on the land opposite Concrete Pond had severed the feed pipe which had led to the pond drying up. While the council maintained that the pond did not have a feed, they did say that they would be willing to undertake an investigation as to what had happened.
More importantly the leader of the council agreed with residents about not just the intrinsic value of the pond, but also of the safety aspect of the pond and agreed to review the planned housing development in light of residents concerns.
The meeting concluded with several members of the public volunteering to serve on the management committee and with the council agreeing to research the plans for the pond, survey the structure of the pond, investigate why the pond had drained in the manner it had and to test the mud to see if it could be safely removed.
The committee was duly formed, and on the 26th August the council provided feedback to representatives of the group at a meeting held at the council headquarters, Pitwood House in Scunthorpe.
The immediate response from the council to the groups questions seemed on the face of it to be reasonably positive. The council have investigated the feeder pipe and have found that it runs 144 meters from the site into the new housing development, at which point it terminates.
The council still refused to accept that the feed pipe fed the pond, was actually providing water. They stated that neither them selves or Severn Trent water had any knowledge of this pipe and that it did not appear on any plans. An officer from the council suggested that the pond had dried up due to “changes in the water table” due to nearby development work. A cunning ploy on behalf of the council as if the developers had dug up an undocumented feeder pipe, then with whom would the liability lie?
The council had also taken samples of the mud from the pond and had it analysed. In this mud they had found some heavy metals and some bacteria which could cause health hazards but pending further tests could not give a clear answer. In light of this it was agreed that signage would be added to the site saying it was under investigation and warning the public of the potential health hazard.
Most shocking however was the council’s proposal to provide anglers with a replacement pond about 400 meters to the east of the current site, by making changes to a drainage system which has been implemented by house builders to take runoff water from the new housing estate.
While some anglers would doubtless welcome this proposal, what the council have failed to take in to consideration the most basic of premise of the group, which is to conserve the existing facilities, not abandon and re-create them else where.
It would seem that in their preoccupation to be seen to be responding to local residents by providing an alternative, the council have missed the very point being made by the Friends of Ashby pond which is that the pond should be repaired and put back to its original state, prior to July of this year. This response calls into question the statement made by the leader of the council at the first public meeting that the council would be prepared to review the LDF housing plan for the area and keep the pond where it is.
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