A village pond that was the focus of a clean-up operation after oil was dumped in the water has been given the all clear by environmental officials. A rescue operation had to be carried out by the RSPCA after two ducks living on Old Buckenham pond, became covered in the substance after engine oil was thrown in the water at the end of July.

A village pond that was the focus of a clean-up operation after oil was dumped in the water has been given the all clear by environmental officials.

A rescue operation had to be carried out by the RSPCA after two ducks living on Old Buckenham pond, became covered in the substance after engine oil was thrown in the water at the end of July.

The Environment Agency sent a worker to the scene with absorbent pads and a boom in a bid to get rid of the oil which posed a threat to wildlife and plants.

Mike Read, chairman of Old Buckenham Green Rights Proprietors, today said that environmental officials had given the pond the all clear and that there was no oil pollution to local water courses.

He said the ducks had also been cleaned and returned to the pond, adding: “It was a reasonably successful operation, but I am pretty vexed some lunatic threw five litres of sump oil into the pond.”

Mr Read said the Green Rights Proprietors had invested around £5,000 in improvements to the pond and its bank before the oil was dumped. “The problem now will be the cost involved,” he said.

“This is a working pond and deals with a great deal of surface water drainage from a small housing development in Old Buckenham. “I am not sure how much the clean-up will cost but there is not a lot of spare cash left. We are trying to do some fund-raising exercises, but how do you protect a pond from something like this again?”