A popular village pond that has turned into a mud bath should begin to improve over the coming weeks.

Pannal duck pond has been in an increasingly poor state over many months amid confusion over its ownership and who has responsibility for its upkeep.

The neighbouring households even received an anonymous, accusatory letter about the pond, signed off “lots of love, the people of Pannal”. It said:

“You and your neighbours have an obligation, indeed, a duty, to remedy this frightful carbuncle and provide a rejuvenated habitat for the boundless wildlife that exits [sic] on and in the surrounding area.

“You need to collaborate with each other and devise an action plan before there is no wildlife left at all – come on!! Start talking to each other and do something about it. Don’t be fat and lazy – put your backs into it and you’ll soon have it looking like it used to!

“Put on your wellies and clean-up for heaven’s sake – remove the traffic cones, the endless plastic bottles, the drinks cans – it’s an utter disgrace and should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves.”

However, one of the neighbours, Clare Waligora, posted the letter on Facebook and gave the community an update on the pond, explaining its ownership and upkeep are not as straightforward as the letter writer appeared to believe.

Her husband Brian told the Stray Ferret a solicitor had looked into the situation and even he could not establish the pond’s ownership. While the neighbouring households pay an annual fee for an indemnity policy, it was not clear what their obligations were for long-term maintenance.

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Mr Waligora said there was an old water wheel with a sluice that used to help with drainage, but it had not been in use for many years. Silt has since built up in the pond, leading to preventing natural drainage and reducing the pond’s capacity.

The nearby households opened a sluice gate to try to allow some of the accumulated debris to clear slowly. Then, last week, heavy rain washed it away in one day and left the pond almost completely drained.

Mr Waligora, who has lived next to the pond for almost 16 years, said:

“Now is the time to do something, but lot of companies wouldn’t even quote because of the access to the pond being so difficult.

“We managed to get one quote of £20,000, but they said it could go up if they were to encounter any issues.”

Mr Waligora said while there was willingness among the neighbouring houses to try to make improvements, that quote was more than they were able to spend.

However, he said they had since received an email from the Environment Agency concerned about the condition of the pond. Mr Waligora is now hopeful the homeowners can work with the agency to find a solution.

He said although it had been unpleasant to receive the anonymous letter through the door, the response from the community had been very supportive.

“I admit during the summer it looked awful and particularly since the heavy rain where it cleared out centuries of debris and created a bit of a stream through there.

“We’ve closed it back up and it should start filling up when we get a heavy rain. We’ve been pleased, despite the letter where the person seemed to represent the Pannal community, most people are appalled and made it clear they had nothing to do with it.

“Almost everyone has been much more helpful which is particularly reassuring for all of us. Since we’ve posted that, everyone I’ve spoken to has been positive and encouraging and willing to help.

“The ownership is a bit of a grey area, but we live around here and we want it to look good like everyone else. We’re willing to put a disproportionate amount of time and money in because we see it more than anyone else but it’s not straight forward.”