PONDS in Kingsmead need to be cleaned more regularly to stop a build up of litter and ‘rank’ gases.

Parish councillors are aiming to get on top of work to keep the village ponds cleaner, tidier and safer and to keep them that way.

Clr Laura Hoey said: “With all the trees we’ve had to do a big job to get them right then it’s a rolling maintenance programme and I have a feeling ponds will be the same.

“We need to sort them out, which will cost a lot of money, then we need a rota to clean them out maybe once a year.”

A dried up pond in Dukes Way is being investigated to see if it can be saved.

Clr Hoey said: “We need to take the silt out and allow it to drain.

“My feeling is that if we remove the silt, refill it and see what happens after a year, whether it reinstates itself or empties itself.

“There might be drainage that’s blocked which should refill it, we don’t know really.

“If you walked past in the summer you could see all the methane bubbling away from the silt.”

Clr Andrew Murison said: “When we first cleared it six months ago the smell coming off it was rank.”

The council is pricing up the work and is set to discuss it again at the next meeting, on October 21.

It is also looking into a clean up of the pond in Coronet Avenue.

Clr Hoey said: “We need to make it nice but bear in mind that it won’t be a one-off job, we’re going to have to clean it regularly.”