Problem birds now penned in

Geese that attacked and injured walkers on a public footpath have been confined to a pen.

The birds that roamed on a path between Humberstone Road and Kirklington Road, Southwell, were listed by Southwell Safer Neighbourhood Group as one of their top three priorities after walkers complained.

The owner of the geese, Mr Peter Orme, of Glenfields, Southwell, attended a meeting of the group on Tuesday and said he had put the geese in a pen.

He said: “I appreciate that geese are wild animals and they are not perfect, but in 25 years they’ve been more sinned against than sinned.

“I feel on many occasions, although I’m sure there are exceptions, that people have their dogs off a lead or on an extendible lead, or they don’t approach the footpath and the geese in the right manner.

“I think a lot of people appreciate them. This is an over reaction from a small group of people.

“I’ve spoken to the footpaths officer and we’ve taken the appropriate action to pen the geese in.

“I’m more disappointed that people want to slowly reduce the things that make it attractive living in the country.

“Animals are part of country existence. On some occasions the geese have been a pleasure to people.”

A member of the safer neighbourhood group and a town councillor, Mr Roger Dobson, was pleased the issue had been resolved but was unhappy it had taken so long.

He said: “I think it was four years ago when the incidents began.

“We’ve got a lot of complaints and pictures of people’s bruises.

“On some occasions there were no dogs involved and these were reasonable, elderly people using the path to go for a walk to Norwood Park.

“I happen to know most of them, have spoken to them and been round to their houses and in many cases they have been very upset and their bruises tell the story without any other evidence.”

Mr Dobson said the authorities took too long to respond and it would have helped if Mr Orme had taken action when he first received information from the town and county councils.

The chairman of the group, Mr Peter Harris, thanked Mr Orme for attending and said the issue was resolved.

At a Southwell town planning committee on Wednesday, Mr Dobson thanked the safer neighbourhood group and county councillor Mr Bruce Laughton.

The committee will write to the county council thanking them for addressing the issue and urging them to act more quickly in future.