'It was so thick you could you could taste it': Council rushes to clean up oil contamination in Abington lake

A lake in Northampton's Abington Park was struck by an oil contamination that was "so thick you could taste it" over the weekend.

Dozens of photos were sent to the Chronicle & Echo on Friday (March 6) showing black sludge on the water of the park's main lake.

The park's ducks and swans were also affected, and several photos showed the animals coated in oil.

One resident, Keith J Smith, says he has been taking photos of the park every morning for years and was struck by what he saw on Saturday morning.

He said: "You could smell it everywhere. It was so thick you could taste it.

"There must have been 30 to 40 dead fish floating on top.

"I could see if on top of the lake, like thick black gunge. It was bubbling up from under one of the planters."

The borough council's park contractors, Idverde, reportedly arrived on Sunday morning to deal with the contamination, with help from charity Animals in Need to clean the animals.

Mr Smith, who met one of the contractors, said: "They did a really good job of it. They had about 20 sacks of rubbish and leaf mould they had cleaned off the top and cleaned all of the clumps out of the wire planters."

Meanwhile, Northampton Borough Council says the contamination was caused by "disturbance of silt" at the bottom of the lake.

A spokesman said: "This issue was reported to us last week and our park rangers immediately sought help from Animals in Need for any affected wildlife. They then worked with our parks contractor, idverde, to clean up the contamination.

"At this stage it appears to have been caused by the disturbance of silt on the bottom of the lake, but we will continue to monitor the situation in case there is another source we have yet to identify.

"Thanks to the Animals in Need volunteers, the birds that did manage to get some of the oil on their feathers looked a lot cleaner.

"The volunteers will continue to monitor the birds over the next few days and we’d like to thank them for their help."