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9 Aug 00

POOLE CALLS IN THE GOOSEBUSTERS

9 August 2000

Photocall: Demonstration of the new Goosebuster machine
Poole Park - Swan Lake Café car park
Friday 11 August 2000 at 11.30am

Poole Council has bought a 'Goosebuster' machine to solve the problem of goose droppings in Poole Park. The machine, which cost £8,600, uses high pressure water jets to disperse the droppings off pathways around the lake edge.

Any one time, there can be between 60-400 geese in the Park. The Park is checked daily and a programme has now begun to clean the park three or four times per week according to demand.

Cllr Graham Wilson, Chair of Culture & Leisure Committee said: "Canada geese are an attractive part of Poole Park to many of its visitors, especially for families with young children who come to the Park to feed the geese and ducks.

However, the goose droppings have been causing a problem for some while and we have taken expert advice on how to deal with the problem. People have suggested culling some of the geese, but there have also been strong objections to this and they are very likely to be replaced by others as the Park is such a nice place for them. The geese do not breed in Poole so the Council is not able to control their breeding.

In the past visitors to the Park would bring just their crusts to feed the birds. Nowadays it is more commonplace for visitors to bring whole loaves to feed the geese and ducks, so there's plenty to go around! We are asking people not to feed the geese in Poole Park as it encourages the geese to keep coming back and can also lead to problems with rats when extra food is left over.

The machine has been used successfully throughout the world and we're confident that it will help improve our goose problem and make a visit to the Park even more enjoyable."

-ends-


Editors Notes:

· The official title of the machine is 'Flowplant Harben DTM Water Jetting Unit'
manufactured at Flowplant's factory in Salisbury.

· The unit, which is towed by a small tractor, pumps water at 3000 psi (pounds per square inch) through a special spinning nozzle gun for superfast path cleaning. It is operated by Wrefords, the Council's contractors for Poole Park.

· When the droppings are diluted by the jet water, the water flowing back into the lake does not provide a food source for algae and will not affect the water quality of the lake.

Steve Carter, Parks Manager, Borough of Poole