Westham Village Pond is a horror story!

It’s green! It’s slimy! It’s killed already! Will it kill again?

No – not a 1950s horror film, but Westham Village Pond.

With reference to last week’s Herald (page 15), unfortunately the Parish Council has not promised any actual action to improve water quality.

Only, when referring to their not yet released pond survey, they say that ‘if any action is needed, councillors will consider doing it’.

I am not at all surprised that we have dead fish on our village pond.

In May, anticipating such an event, I attended the Parish Council meeting and expressed concern about the pond’s increasing deterioration.

I also asked the question “As the Parish Council appears to be unable to manage the village pond, will it consider handing over management to another agency?” (The first half of my question does not appear in the minutes.)

The answer was a resounding “No.”

The dry weather has just exacerbated an appalling level of water purity, not existing on other ponds, for which the Parish Council’s neglect and unwillingness to listen is totally to blame.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way, so I look forward to the Parish Council discussing the means of returning the pond to an acceptable level, not an in-depth investigation in search of reasons to justify inactivity.

I have no doubt that the Parish Council, who are of course volunteers, are committed and sincere, but there has to be a complete change of attitude and direction, or we will be removing dead fish from the pond yet again next year.