News Archive
Geese In The Park
Mar 27, 2010
The 25 March edition of the Bucks Examiner carried an article about Judith Robinson's 'Battle to save geese in the park'. The Friends of Lowndes Park were not given the opportunity to give their side of the story so Michael Rowan, the Chair, wrote the following letter to the paper:
Dear Sir/Madam
I write to offer some context to the story that you ran last week regarding the domestic geese in Lowndes Park as we were not given the opportunity when you published the story.
I have spoken to Miss Robinson on a number of occasions, most recently for 30 minutes, whilst once again I explained the position of the Friends. I accept that the words,”get rid of the geese,” was a clumsy use of vocabulary, but I did explain the intention to Miss Robinson in great detail, and she has at best chosen to ignore my explanation, and at worst deliberately misrepresented me.
The dumping of domestic fowl threatens the enjoyment of the park by many visitors. Sixty fowl were dumped and without some measure of control these would continue to breed or be added to by others wishing to dispose of their fowl.
We have never suggested poisoning, as was alleged to our local MP, nor have we suggested culling, as was alleged to the RSPCA by an anonymous person! The RSPCA inspector who rang me, accepted our explanation.
We the Friends having asked our members, support the idea of re homing the domestic geese, and not adding to what is in the park naturally. This is simply because we are aware of people moving away from the pond to eat their lunchtime sandwiches and keeping toddlers and young children away because the children were getting scared of the flock and the propensity to have the buggy wheels covered in bird excrement.
The Green Flag judges commented last year on the amount of excrement on the path.
There are plenty of wild fowl for Miss Robinson, and others to feed, without the need for large flocks of domestic fowl, and their re homing seems to us eminently sensible.
The pond area may not be too bad now but this is after the majority of birds have been re homed. If the birds are allowed to breed we will be back at square one.
A full response to the story you published is available on our website and we would encourage anyone interested in the activities of the Friends to look at the website and to contact us.
We would also welcome volunteers to help with the various projects in the park, and if Miss Robinson would like to clean the path of goose excrement when she has finished feeding the birds, we would give her every support, including writing a risk assessment for her.
The park should be, and should remain, somewhere that everyone can enjoy whatever their interest and we would be horrified if this were not to remain the case.
Yours faithfully
Michael Rowan
Chairman of the Friends of Lowndes Park
News & Events
The Friends are moving the weekend working party to the second Sunday of the month and the next one will be on Sunday 12 February. We hope to be pruning roses, weeding the beds and then take a look to see if the snowdrops we have planted over the last few years are coming through. We meet at 10am in the Archena Garden which is next to the Temperance Hall in Church Street.
The Friends are hoping to plant around 30 native tree saplings in the Wildlife Area at their working party on Sunday 8 January. They have been donated by the 10th Chesham Guides and were given to them by the Woodland Trust. The varieties of tree include Holly, Wild Rose, Hawthron, Hazel and Dogwood.
We would like to thank Helena Mills who raised £570 for the Friends of Lowndes Park in memory of her good friend Ben Cargill. Over the course of the last summer she took part in not one but three triathlons. Please click on the title for more details and picture.
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