Angling lake polluted after suspected oil spill

An oil spill polluting an angling lake has put wildlife including fish, birds and deer at risk, a West Sussex resident has said.

Andrew Bailey said he was met with the strong smell of heating oil as he arrived back from holiday to his home off Newells Lane in Horsham.

The Environment Agency said it visited the lake after the spill was reported on 16 March and contained the substance, with inquiries ongoing to find the source.

Nathan Harman, from Horsham Wildlife Rescue, which has been helping with the clear-up, said a duck had been rescued and the impact on wildlife could be much wider.

Bailey, who is retired, said he feared fish would die in the lake, which is part of his commercial fishery and provides his only income.

He said the pollution reached a natural spring feeding the pond and was "not a bucket or a barrel - it is a lot of oil".

Bailey said someone nearby would know they were losing oil, or they should do.

He said he had seen a dead fish and a duck covered in kerosene, adding deer drank from the stream and there was frog spawn in the silt trap that could be affected.

"Until the Environment Agency finds out where it's coming from, it will keep leaking," he said.

He said the fishery had a main lake below the silt trap and stock pond, and if oil got into the lake, it could affect fish, geese, moorhens, coots, herons and kingfishers.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said officers were working closely with residents and landowners.

"We are urging anyone with an oil tank to check it is in a good state of repair," he said.

Harman said the duck found covered in kerosene was being cared for.

"The problem is you don't really think about the wider impact," he said.

"A duck getting covered in oil is one thing, but then a fox will eat that duck, and then the fox will get ill, and it's just a chain of events that you don't really want."

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