Dear Sir,
The West Park lakes were developed, originally, as boating lakes – when I first came to the town you could still watch people sailing their (amazing) models.
Even then, however, there was a problem with weed. The lakes are shallow and the water becomes warm.  Meanwhile, the water is nutrient-rich:– fertilisers from farmers’ fields, hydrocarbon run-off from local estates, bread people feed to the birds, and those birds’ droppings, in that warm water, create an explosion of weed and algae growth in summer.
When I was elected to the Environment Committee in the late 1990s, the Town Council still periodically drained and cleaned the lakes, but it was an unsatisfactory business. The tractors cracked the base of the lake and aquatic life was destroyed. The water-soaked weed weighed so many hundreds of tons that it could not be transported away immediately, but had to be left to drain and dry out … hence the awful smell.
Today, given new regulations about health & safety and movement & tipping of controlled waste as required under the Environmental Protection Act, it would be inconceivably expensive to clear the lakes – when we sought a price recently, we could not get even an estimate.
The turning point was environmental. One year, a pioneer duck had managed to nest by the lakes and, to protect the ducklings, local residents physically prevented Council workers from opening the sluice to drain the water. In a time of changing attitudes, we decided to turn the lakes from an artificial feature into a natural resource.
Instead of clearing the lakes, we began putting in a retardant – a bacteria which devours the nutrients.  It is perfectly natural and absolutely safe. As you can see, it does not work perfectly – especially in a very warm summer such as this – but it does reduce plant growth.
The lakes, therefore, have become an ecological feature in their own right, and part of the Council’s biodiversity offer. When I inspected the lakes last week, they were beautiful … as long as you were looking at them as an environmental, not an artificial, asset.  The mats of weed covered less than half the surface, and were multi-coloured; if you had chanced upon such a pond on a country walk you would have taken a photograph!  The water, meanwhile, was crystal clear, and teeming with all kinds of swimming things.  Dragon flies and damson flies danced around the edges, and the lakes were covered with ducks, geese, seagulls and swans.
Nature left to itself, of course, does not look manicured, and I can appreciate why people wanting an ornamental feature are disappointed.  Every year we get a few complaints, some from people who are politically motivated, but others from people who simply do not understand what we are trying to do with the lakes.
Last week’s letter in the Newton News was typical, combining misunderstanding with misinformation.  May I assure readers that there has NEVER been poisonous algae in the lakes.
We did not take the boats off the lake because of the weed; we stopped them because people had stopped using them. Whilst the revenue-take had fallen to pennies, we were paying thousands for staff – in a world anxious about child safety, it was impossible to get properly-checked, suitably-qualified staff, for just a few weeks, for a temporary unskilled job at holiday time.
Thus the lakes represent a success, not a failure. They are not a rare ecological resource but, given the location and the limitations, they are a remarkable achievement.  If anyone wishes to speak further about this, either myself or the town council’s qualified Environment Officer would be happy to visit to explain further.  And – if anyone has a good idea as to how we might reduce the weed without wrecking the wildlife it supports – we will always be prepared to consider it.  Apparently turning the upper lake into a reed-bed would work, but we decided that the cure was worse than the weed!  Personally, I think that what we’ve got is the best we can have.
Beyond that, I really don’t know how to address the perennial problem of people who go to the park wanting a disinfected boating lake, and who jump to the wrong conclusion that the lakes are ‘dirty and diseased’.
Perhaps people reading this letter can help to spread the word that the lakes are actually clean and eco-healthy!     Counc. John Clare