The Parks Trust is disappointed to report that life-saving throw lines have been taken from Lodge Lake in Great Holm four times within the last six months.
The throw lines were installed at two points on the lake in March 2017. They are secured in a box and clearly marked as life-saving equipment that should not be removed.
These throw lines form a key part of the Trust’s water safety strategy and so their repeated disappearance has been reported to Thames Valley Police as theft, under crime reference number 43170245349.
The Trust would therefore like to urge visitors to the lake who may have seen people using the lines to get in touch; or if they see these lines left elsewhere in the city; the lines are an orange plastic tube with a handle on one end, around 30cm/one foot in length.
Jools Kendall, the Community Ranger at The Parks Trust who covers Lodge Lake, commented: “We are concerned that these are being repeatedly taken from the lake; their sole use is as life-saving equipment and they are clearly marked as such. Whoever is removing these is potentially not considering the implications if the lines are needed and then are not where they should be.
“As a self-financing charity with over 6,000 acres of green space across Milton Keynes to manage, we simply cannot afford to keep buying this equipment only for it to be taken again – in the past where life-saving devices have been repeatedly vandalised or stolen we have had to make the difficult decision to stop replacing them and it would be a real shame to have to do this at Lodge Lake.”
For more details about Lodge Lake, please visit: http://www.theparkstrust.com/parks/lodge-lake
