Lydney Mayor receives death threats over possible Canada Geese 'cull'

The mayor said the council was "not necessarily" going to cull the birds, although that was one option that had been put forward

A mayor said she had received death threats over a possible cull to manage the number of geese at a beauty spot.

Lydney Town Council voted 10-3 to reduce the number of birds at Lydney Boating Lake because their droppings were disrupting sporting fixtures.

Lydney Mayor Tasha Saunders said she woke up to death threats last week.

She said: "All we voted for was to manage and control the numbers of geese," but fellow councillor Steve Stockham described it as "a cull".

Last week Mr Stockham said: "Unfortunately the town council trust board decided they wanted to go ahead with the cull and I think that has been done without enough consideration for the alternatives."

Managing the geese population was needed to help the sports clubs that had to cancel games due to the amount of droppings, councillors were told.

Issue 'distorted'

It was also hoped by reducing the numbers of Canada Geese at the site it would encourage other wildlife to return, provide a better ecological balance and help improve the water quality for the fish, the meeting heard.

Lydney Town Council is the sole trustee of Lydney Recreation Trust that is considering options to tackle the problem, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Ms Saunders said other options would be explored at a further meeting on 9 August and a long-term non-lethal programme would also be considered.

"It's all been blown out of proportion. It's been portrayed as a cull," she said.

"There are other options and that is what we will be discussing.

Cull 'last resort'

"The word cull is such a horrible word and you immediately think they're killing everything.

"And some councillors think the council was culling all the geese.

"But a cull was given to us as an option, but that is not necessarily what we are doing.

"That might have had to have been our very last resort. But there are other options."

There are about 30 geese at the lake at present but there are typically up to 200 that live there and the council said it planned to reduce their numbers by 60%.

Ms Saunders added: "We've got a good balanced option to be put on the table and hopefully all will be revealed [later] on Wednesday.

"It's not a quick fix, it's a long term programme and it won't get better for a while.

"We are considering a non-lethal option."