Shocking photos show birds nest made of plastic and rubbish at Wakefield beauty spot

Visitors to a beauty spot are being asked to bin their litter after shocking photos emerged showing a bird had created a nest made up of rubbish.
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The coot has built the nest for her three chicks close to the banks at Newmillerdam Country Bank, but instead of being made up of twigs, there are pieces of plastic and wrappers included that the bird had obviously found scattered around.

Julie Christie, who is from Lupset but travels to the popular lake for dog walks, took a snap of the nest which is close to where Barnsley Road bends round, near to the junction with Hill Road.

She said: “It’s just awful and so sad to see.

Visitors to a beauty spot are being asked to bin their litter after shocking photos emerged showing a bird had created a nest made up of rubbish.Visitors to a beauty spot are being asked to bin their litter after shocking photos emerged showing a bird had created a nest made up of rubbish.
Visitors to a beauty spot are being asked to bin their litter after shocking photos emerged showing a bird had created a nest made up of rubbish.
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“It’s close to the road, usually where there’s an ice cream truck parked and it’s all made up of leftover plastic and biscuit wrappers.

“It’s probably a sign of the times but people need to start taking their rubbish home with them rather than leaving lying around willy nilly.

“We go there quite a bit and there’s quite a bit of litter, there’s very few bins around.”

Although owned by Wakefield Council, a voluntary group, The Friends of Newmillerdam Country Park was started up in 2009 with an aim to maintain the beauty spot.

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But the group’s chairman, Jeff Simpson, that the situation could get worse before it can improve.

He said: “The work of the Friends group has been suspended during the lock down.

“The council have refused permission for a restart, thus the problem of litter at the country park will get worse rather than better over the next few weeks.

“It becomes even more important at this time for people to take all the litter home or deposit it in the bins in the car parks.”

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Wakefield Council’s cabinet member for the environment, Coun Maureen Cummings said: “It is really disheartening to see this image from Newmillerdam.

Litter is a blight on the environment and costs millions of pounds to clear.

“Even though the council is working hard to tackle it, we need everyone’s help to make a big difference together.”

In recent week the park was re-opened to the public, providing social distancing rules were followed.

More recently the main car park was re-opened, although the toilets remain shut.