Resident calls for action to tackle 'disgusting' problem in Buxton's Pavilion Gardens

Paul Timmins, from Heath Grove, says it’s time for action as the excessive goose poo around the gardens is not a good advert for the town.

The 66-year-old said: “I walked around the gardens last week and I counted almost 60 piles of poo on the paths and it’s disgusting.

“I understand that geese are wild animals and what they are doing is natural but it’s getting out of hand.

“You can’t safely walk around the paths anymore as there is poo everywhere and not just little ones – some of the faecal matter is huge.

“But if people stopped feeding the geese then maybe they would move on and the problem would go away too.

“It’s just not a great advert for the town to see this much poo in a public park where children and dogs play and no one is doing anything about it.”

Parkwood Leisure manages the buildings and facilities in the gardens while the outside space is looked after by High Peak Borough Council.

But Paul Kelsall, Parkwood’s general manager for the site, said: “Every year as we come out of summer and into the colder season we do see the geese getting closer to the buildings which we don’t want.”

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Mr Timmins thinks more needs to be done to keep the geese out.

He said: “They are a menace.

"There should be signs saying do not feed the geese and maybe plastic models of other birds to deter them from coming back to the gardens every year.”

A spokesperson for High Peak Borough Council added: “We do regularly use a pavement sweeper to clean the pathways around the Pavilion Gardens to remove the goose poo but this isn’t suitable for use on the grassed areas.

”The geese do not actually roost in the park but fly in to feed primarily. We have put up signs asking people not to feed the birds but these are often removed by visitors.

“It’s a difficult balance to keep everyone happy but we do our best to manage the mess they make with the cleansing systems we have in place.”

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