I'm surprised that they drained it, many competitions were cancelled there due to weed the councils excuse was that a rare shrimp was in the pond so would not drain it it's one only 2 of the best purpose built model sailing lakes in the country the other being Fleetwood these lakes are perfect for vane sailing where you can walk along the bank and guide you boat.
Hi Tony, you don't know the half of it !
It wasn't the council that decided to drain it, but the club. These rare (tiny) shrimps are a protected species and as such Natural England has taken a hand in things and consequently any plans to put weed killers etc in the water to kill the weed are forbidden.
Now any decisions involve the council, a government dept. and at the end of the line, the club ! as can be imagined the involvement of two civil service depts makes any agreement a long drawn out affair
At the moment the only treatment we can use is a dye which is not poisonous to shrimps but restricts the light reaching the weed roots and slows their growth. We (the club) got permission to drain the lakes at the New Year spring tides down to puddles hoping that we would get at least one good frost to attack the weeds. I think Old Murphy had a hand there as the weather had other ideas ! Anyway all is refilled and we await the spring to see what effect it has made !
Mike
PS The sailing competitions were adjusted best we could, to work around this action
PPS You are welcome Mark !