Calls have been made for significant investment and a management plan at Llandrindod’s ‘jewel in the crown’ lake following this summer’s environmental crisis

Hundreds of fish died and many volunteers and local residents spent hours, often sleeping in their cars overnight at the lake, to keep water pumps running after a toxic blue green algae bloom in July.

Llandrindod Wells Mayor Councillor Steve Deeks-D’Silva and town clerk Jane Johnston stepped into action providing food and drinks for the hard-working volunteers.

Councillor Deeks-D’Silva also funded the installation of a powerful water pump from his mayor’s allowance when other pumps were removed and the situation became critical.

Two other residents also funded water pumps and after their use, the situation at the lake slowly began to improve.

At a recent town council meeting, Ms Johnston recommended that the Council fund the pump cost of £464 directly from the Lake Park budget

Members agreed to make a budget virement to transfer this cost to the Lake Park budget.

Councillor Chris Owen felt that this had been an awful situation and hoped that a management plan could be developed to prevent future episodes of this. 

The Clerk informed members that County Councillor Pete Roberts had been working on a preventative plan with the support of other agencies.

Councillor Roberts said: ““After the incident I agreed with senior officers that I would write a draft analysis of what happened this year, the lessons that can be learnt from it and write a first draft incident plan for the future. 

“We met earlier this month with representatives from the angling club and boathouse and those documents are now feeding into the formal council processes. 

“Funding is also being sought for a specialist analysis of preventative measures that can be used to limit the risk of this happening again. 

“It’s still early days and funding will be a significant issue but there is agreement that there needs to be a plan as this is likely to happen again in the future and the lack of a contingency plan was at the root of many of the issues that happened in July.”

Town councillors agreed to write to Powys County Council to ask them to prepare a management plan and, along with Natural Resources Wales, consider significant investment on the Lake

A spokesperson for Powys County Council said: “The council is looking at the future management of Llandrindod Lake and will be speaking with the stakeholders most directly impacted in due course. Proposals have been put forward by Cllr Pete Roberts but they are only that at the current time. Nothing has yet been decided.”