Leeds woman raises alarm over ducks 'trapped' in Roundhay Park lake dam

Park user Brenda Wallace contacted the YEP after seeing a family of juvenile ducks who had become stranded in the overflow area behind the dam at Waterloo Lake over the weekend.

Huge tree falls onto road trapping cars in Roundhay Park

The birds were too young to fly out, and their mother was trying to encourage them to climb the concrete sides of the weir.

"In this weather the weed on the weir and in the drainage channel are drying up so natural, reachable food is dwindling. There seems to be limited enthusiasm for rescuing the ducks, the perceived wisdom appears to be that the mother takes the young there to take advantage of food from visitors and that she will lead them out via Wyke Beck, this looks to me to be wishful thinking," said Brenda

Nostalgia: The summer Genesis played Roundhay Park

"Surely the best solution would be for the park staff to repair/replace the barrier at the top of the weir? As of now a group of juvenile ducks, one of whom has an injured leg, are stranded with insufficient food and nowhere to swim."

But Leeds City Council confirmed that parks staff are not trained to handle wildlife, and that any rescue would have to be carried out by the RSPCA.

Gary Gillings from the Roundhay Park management team said:

"Trapped ducks in the bywash are an ongoing issue and we have received many queries about this in the past few weeks. The staff work closely with the RSPCA and have affected rescues in the past as they are trained in animal handling, although the ducklings do seem to be able to get out of their own accord eventually if they are no longer being fed. I will see about putting a sign up asking the public not to feed the birds in the bywash and we will continue to monitor the situation."