Buxton man makes it his mission to clean up the boating lake in Pavilion Gardens

Leo Mycock has had enough of the boating lake looking a mess and took it upon himself to clean the lake.

So far he has spent 35 hours removing weeds, algae and clearing the drains.

The 21-year-old said: “It just looks such a mess and no one seemed to care.

“So I figured I could do something.”Since then Leo has been out scooping up the weeds and even taking to the water in his kayak to tackle the problem.

Leo is a train driver for the miniature train which goes around the gardens and said his route does not take next to the lake but when he goes to the kiosk he can see how bad it is getting.

He said: “The Pavilion Gardens are the lungs of Buxton.

“Everyone comes here whether it's locals walking their dogs or tourists and the lake was letting the area down.

“I know the lake is owned by the council but it took months for them to put up the don't feed the geese signs so I knew this would take ages.

“The lake is where the boats operate from so it is a business but they have been unable to operate especially at the end of the summer holidays when the lake was at its worst.”

Leo says the support he has received has been amazing and people have really gotten behind him and his mission to clean up the lake.

He said: “I’ve heard people saying how nice the lake is looking and that’s what it’s all about.”Despite mostly positive support he says one councillor rang the police one him.

Leo said: “I’m just trying to make the area I live in a better place to be.”He says he has been researching what to do with the algae on the lake and when he has cleared it is putting it out on land for the animals to use.

He said: “I’m keeping it out of the way of where dogs might be but the geese and the ducks have all been nibbling at it and it decomposes quite quickly so that’s good too.”