GREEN campaigners have joined forces to get a Walton pond cleaned up.

They say the former Quay Canal, which runs along the back of Eastford Road, has become a 'stagnant pond', smelly and covered with duckweed.

Emma Green, of Eastford Road, said: "It is a mess and it stinks. The neighbours have been campaigning to get it cleaned up for about two years, so we are going to get together and form a group."

Groundwork Mersey Valley has got on board to help the residents apply for grants to get some of the work done.

Emma said: "The borough council says it will clean up the duckweed, but it is only a short term solution and seems to me a waste of money to just do that because it will have to keep doing it.

"We have been advised that it needs to have flowing water going in at one end."

Andrew Gilbert, assistant director of environmental services at Warrington Borough Council, said: "We are proposing to skim the duckweed off and treat it with a surface application of herbicide that will kill off the duckweed.

"We aim to get this done within the next month but we are waiting for permission from the Environment Agency to use the herbicide.

"It is a problem that has been going on for a number of years and it is an aesthetic problem as there is no smell."

He added that the council is waiting for resources to investigate the possibility of foul drainage from dishwashers and washing machines being connected to the problem.