A MODEL boat club claims its future is in danger because its precious lake is being taken over by weeds.

The popular Southend Model Boat Club, which was founded in 1948 and has 100 members, runs an annual event at the lake in Southchurch Park.

However, it has warned this year’s event might not go ahead due to the state of the lake.

It claims the lake was taken over by weeds when Southend Council allowed the water level to drop so it could install disabled ramps.

Peter Bone, secretary of the club, said: “During this project, the council contractors twice lowered the water level in the lake, and on one of these occasions the water level was left lowered for a couple of months, during which time no model boating was possible.

“When the lake was eventually restored to it’s normal level, it very soon became choked with weed, the like of which we have never seen before.

“This again rendered the lake unusable.

“Wemade the council aware of the problem but little, if anything, was done about it.”

He added: “It is threatening the survival of our club, which was founded in 1948, and unless something is done urgently, this could be our last year.”

The council started work at the lake last spring, but despite it only being meant to last six weeks, the work ended up taking a year.

Martin Terry, a local ward councillor, said: “We are trying to fix it, but it’s quite a complex problem.

“We can’t apply weedkiller because of other ecological issues like fish stocks.

“We’re trying to find a longterm solution. The boat people have been absolutely brilliant by cleaning it themselves.

“They really have great community spirit.

“The problem is not simple to fix. There are different types of bloom there.

“Last year there was a quite rare bloom.

We do understand the club is very well established at the lake and attracts many visitors to its events each year, sowe are working hard to find a solution.”