Barrowford: Fewer people feeding ducks harmful bread after competition

Run by Friends of Victoria Park, the competition was aimed at encouraging those visiting the park to stop feeding bread to the ducks and leaving food that was unsuitable for the animals to consume.

They produced a video and sent it to 21 schools in the area, in the hope the children would pass the message on to their parents.

The Pavillion Café in the park already offers free bird seed for those looking to feed the ducks.

They also ran a competition for children at St Thomas’ in Barrowford to create their best poster designs with the winners being announced on Sunday, November 9.

The winners were Connie Varsey and Stan Crabtree.

Connie being congratulated by Carol - member of Friends of Victoria Park alongside St Thomas headteacher Oliver Haynes (Image: Wendy Leadbetter)

Wendy Leadbetter, from Friends of Victoria Park said: “People were turning up with their families and a loaf of bread each.

“It contaminates the water and increases vermin around the side of the park and what happens is that the wildlife suffers, including the birds.

“We had 40 different applications, and they were so lovely, so creative and beautifully done.

“The humour and the cleverness of each of the applications was amazing and it was a really hard job to pick the winners.”

They will now be displayed in the foyer area of the Pavillion until November, whilst the winning five will be put down and placed on the formal noticeboards around the park for everyone to see them publicly.

Wendy, who moved to Barrowford 18 months ago, also provided chocolates to the school for everyone involved.

She added: “Since we started the campaign, we have seen a decline in number of people feeding the ducks and a change in bird seed and less bread.

“And we haven’t seen any food dumped at the side of the water which is great and it obviously has worked.”