Whittle Hall Geese need your help!
The Land Trust, Warrington Borough Council and Great Sankey Parish Council have been working together over the last year to tackle the issues relating to the geese population in Whittle Hall. Along with everyone else, we have been very saddened by the recent deaths of the geese along Omega Boulevard. Cheshire Police have confirmed that the motorist has been identified and arrested by the Rural Crime Team. The incident has caused widespread upset among residents as the geese are a much-loved feature of the area with the main pond on Kingsdale Road and numerous smaller ones running its length and in the surrounding roads. Unfortunately, overfeeding the geese is having a negative effect on the pond and the green spaces around it.  We would like your help to keep not only the geese population safe and healthy but also to protect the diversity of the wider environment.

Working together on geese overpopulation

The geese are no longer migrating as the climate is milder and they are a little too well fed – despite signs asking people not to feed them and information boards explaining why. The uncontrolled increase in the geese population is causing a range of issues, including:

• Fouling on footpaths and grassed areas
• Road issues, with geese obstructing traffic
• Poor condition of the ponds and reducing biodiversity
• Outcompeting other wildfowl such as ducks which are moving away from the main pond
• Nutritional deficiencies in the geese, particularly ‘angel wing’ from an over-indulgence on bread
• Increased reports of rodents caused by the abundance of food scraps and seeds

 How you can help

We love our area and especially our ponds, geese and ducks. Come and look at the geese and take as many photos as you like but please DO NOT FEED THEM! Use the information boards to identify other species and see how many different creatures you can spot.

We are in the process of setting up a ‘Friends of Whittle Hall Ponds’ group to keep an eye on the health and wellbeing of the pond and all its wildlife. If you would like to be involved with this, you can register your interest via this link https://thelandtrust.org.uk/warrwhittlehallduckpond/

We will be providing further updates on the pond, the wildlife and Friends of Whittle Hall Ponds group on this page.