Tag: alexandralake

Wanstead bird poisoners’ jailed

Two men who poisoned birds and a dog at Alexandra Lake on Wanstead Flats in March this year were jailed for four months each and fined £7,000 at Snaresbrook Crown Court today.  Terrance Webb, 28, of Ilford and Mark Page, 35, of Romford, were both pest control officers for Newham Council.

They stole pesticide normally used to control fleas and cockroaches, put it into some bread and laid it around the lake during their lunch-hours, then, according to reports, laughed and joked that crows had eaten the bread and died.

Among the dead were geese, moorhen, crows and pigeons, and an Alsation.  Pamela Rowe, 69, the owner of the dog, told the Evening Standard today:

“It was a twisted, evil thing they did. They were not teenagers, they were pest control officers. My dog died a violent horrible death, and he was completely innocent.”

UPDATE, TUESDAY: The Evening Standard today published a fuller account of Mrs Rowe’s anger, and published for the first time a picture of the ill-fated dog, a German Shepherd-setter cross, named Russett.

Wanstead news roundup, 4.7.10; The bowler’s Holding, Wanstead cinema, and no more Wanstead Sauna?

• A spectacular traffic snarl-up which stretched from the M11 to Wanstead High Street last Monday meant that legendary West Indian fast bowler Courtney Walsh didn’t make it to Wanstead Cricket Club in time to open new training nets as planned. But all was not lost – fellow legendary West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding was there and stood in for Walsh. (Photo: Dave Buba)

• The application to knock down the 160-year-old building which once housed Wanstead’s only ever cinema, Kinema – now Nam Pham, next to the George, has been rejected again. The plan was for a block of flats.

• A public inquiry into the proposal to develop the former Chepstow House in Leicester Road, Wanstead, has now finished. Report here from the Counties’ Residents’ Association, who oppposed the plan. Decision expected by the end of the month.

• Two council pest control officers denied charges that they deliberately poisoned animals at Alexandra Lake in March. More than 80 birds and a dog died at the lake.

• It appears that Wanstead Sauna is now no longer open for business, with a very large padlock having been put on the door.

People still ignoring Wanstead danger signs

Jonathan Lethbridge, whose Wanstead Birder blog has become the main source of information for the country’s media about the deaths of birds at Wanstead Flats, has written that people have still been ignoring the danger signs and barriers around Alexandra Lake.

The bird death saga rumbles on. The stupidity of the local populace continues to beggar belief. I’ve seen families walking past the “Biohazard” signs and stepping over the high-viz tape to go and feed the ducks by the lake shore. Fail. The Corporation had to install proper security fencing to stop them. Personally I’d have let Darwinism take it’s course, but there you go

Barriers ripped round Wanstead poisoned lake

Tape preventing access to the apparently poisoned Wanstead Flats lake, where 80 birds and a dog died last week, has been torn, according to a complainant to the FixMyStreet website. On the site, which forwards complaints to the appropriate authorities (and excerpts of which can be seen on the right hand side of Wansteadium pages), the report reads:

The contaminated pond has warning barriers around to stop people walking near it. These however have been broken and I have witness people walking dogs right next to the pond.