Goose cull among options to tackle health risk

A council has said it is considering culling Canada Geese in a green space as the birds' excrement is causing a health risk.

High Peak Borough Council has carried out more cleaning around play areas and has put up signs in Pavilion Gardens, Buxton, urging people not to feed geese due to an E. coli risk linked to its excrement.

Damien Greenhalgh, deputy leader of the authority, said: "We need to look at every single option. We're not at that point yet, but that's potentially where we may end [a cull]. We're trying every single non-lethal method."

Independent councillor Madeline Hall said a cull would be ineffective as the birds would simply return, arguing other measures would have more impact.

The council said it is increasing cleaning of the worst-affected areas, which includes the children's play areas, and has introduced sanitising stations.

The birds are non-native and they were not introduced to the park.

Independent councillor Hall, a former head of Capel Manor College, an environmental college in London, believes the council's measures, including a cull, would be ineffective.

Rather than just having signs, she said people caught feeding the geese should be fined as a littering offence.

Hall said small fences should be built around the lake to stop the birds from waddling into the water and more plants planted in these spots.

"At the moment, we put up welcome flags for geese," she added.

"These are creatures that can fly at 30mph (48km/h), they have got very good eyesight, they are put on the moors and they can actually scan for super places to be.

"If we put food out and have access to water they will come."

In 2023, Hall organised an online consultation into what should be done about the birds and found mixed results.

"I genuinely believe it's still split and there's nuance within that, between those people who think they should be left completely alone, those people who want to carry on feeding them, and those people who like to see them occasionally," she added.

Paul McBride, who walks in the park, said he would only be in favour of a cull if the goose meat was used.

"It might be worth doing the cull around Christmas time so you can make use of the actual body of the goose, but culling geese just to cut the numbers down and then those bodies being thrown away as waste, I don't agree with that at all," he added.

Myra Mannering, from Buxton, who regularly visits Pavilion Gardens, said she was in favour of a cull.

"The numbers are getting out of control and they're beginning to be a nuisance," she added.

"Even deer are culled because they can get too many of them. I love deer and I don't particularly love the geese.

"I do appreciate that when there's too many you have to take measures."

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