THE frustrated groundsman at Saltaire Cricket Club has called for action after being faced with a daily clean-up due to a group of Canada geese.

A group of 36 Canada geese were spotted grazing on the cricket pitch at Roberts Park yesterday morning and each day the park staff are left to clear up their droppings.

Billy Ricketts, volunteer groundsman at Saltaire Cricket Club for the last 28 years, says the clean-up operation is needed for matches and events to go ahead, such as a three-day children’s cricket coaching course, which started on Monday.

He says the problem is getting worse after “months and months” and has contacted Bradford Council’s environmental health team in a bid to move the geese away after they come up off the river that runs through the park.

But Mr Ricketts fears the problem will not get fixed until someone falls “seriously ill”. He added players’ cricket whites are getting covered in the geese mess too during the matches they play at the pitch.

He says the mess is even being left on the wicket of the cricket field.

Mr Ricketts said: “It’s an absolute joke.

"I'm sick to the back teeth of having to pick up goose droppings.

"People can't picnic and play on the outside of the cricket pitch because of the problem.

“We have to spend two hours each day going over it with a machine, clearing it up. We get covered in it too. We get splattered.

“The mess is all over the whole of the park. We’ve had as many as 51 geese on the park in the past. The geese are coming up off the river.

“There were about 36 Canada geese grazing on the park yesterday.

“It’s been going on for months and months. We just want them moved on and for people to stop feeding them.

"The pathways are covered by goose droppings. The players' cricket whites are covered in goose droppings.

"We have got 30 kids coming down for cricket coaching at the club this week.

“It seems like nothing will be done until someone goes down seriously ill with salmonella or e coli. We are totally frustrated. Why should we go down every day and clean it up? We have to go round with a shovel. It’s a health hazard.

“The mess has even gone on the cricket wickets. We have to clean it up even before the cricket matches.”