Bracknell

Restoration work to a popular Bracknell pond has won two prestigious national awards for the team working on it.

Fish had been dying in the dirty, shallow waters of Mill Pond, off Wildridings Road, Bracknell until a £175,000 scheme was started to re-landscape the pond, encourage more wildlife and improve angling facilities.

Now the team behind the project - Bracknell Town Council, Bracknell Herons angling club, Thames Water and the Environment Agency - has won two gongs at national awards ceremonies.

The Bracknell team won national runnerup in the utilities section of the Green Apple Environment Awards as well as the Good Fisheries Management Award 2005 from the Institute of Fisheries Management.

Work included dredging silt to create ledges on the sides of the pond so native wetland plants could thrive.

There were also new reed beds planted to improve water quality and provide cover, food and spawning areas to help increase future fishing stocks.

There are now also 25 fishing platforms and a wheelchairfriendly path that circles the pond as a result of the project, which was also partially funded by Bracknell Forest Borough Council, Waitrose, Syngenta, 3M and McDonald's.

Bracknell Town council clerk Barbara Rumbold said: "The pond was in danger of becoming an unpleasant, muddy mess, so our local residents really appreciate the work that has taken place to regenerate this central feature of Mill Park."

Bracknell Herons also got a boost from the fisheries management award because it picked up the £1,000 prize that came with it.

John Sutton, fisheries and biodiversity team leader for the Environment Agency, said: "The partners involved in the project have decided that the prize money will help pay for further improvements such as stocking the pond with fish, and for a trophy to be awarded annually to Bracknell's best junior angler."

Mike Codd, from the Bracknell Herons, said: "We are delighted the prize money from the fishing award will go towards boosting the levels of roach and bream in the water and, with many promising young anglers in our club, the competition for our new trophy couldn't be tighter."

The pond is part of the surface water drainage system for Great Hollands, Birch Hill and Hanworth, Bracknell.

ic Berkshire ~ Bracknell