DRAMATIC drops in the water level at a popular boating lake have been blamed on nature – despite a council department previously blaming tram works.
According to Nottingham City Council large parts of the water at Highfields Park have been reduced to mud and silt due to seasonal fluctuations.
However, in a Facebook message from the authority's parks and open spaces department to a concerned member of the public, the recent 12 inch drop was due to tram work on nearby University Boulevard.
It said: "We believe the drop in water levels are connected to some previous de-watering works carried out by the adjacent tram works.
"We believe the de-watering of their trenches caused a drop in the water table and as a consequence the water levels on the lake have dropped."
The message was sent to Barry Duke who did not believe that the lower water level was a natural drop.
The 52-year-old of Sandiacre said: "I was convinced as were many number of people that the tram works were responsible for part of the demise of the lake.
"I talked at great lengths with old beestonians that remembered the old stream going into the lake over 60 or 70 years ago about it.
"You can't mess with the water table too much in the Beeston area without it having consequences elsewhere."
Because the water level is so low the waterfall in the lake stopped working and some boats have been getting stuck in the mud.
Kate Pearson, of Beeston, moved to the area in 1989 when she started university.
She said: "I have seen more than twenty summers here and the lake, though lower on occasion, never looked that bad."
Nottingham City Council has now said the message sent to Mr Duke was a mistake.
A spokesman said: "We are confident that the drop in water levels at Highfields Park lake is simply down to seasonal fluctuation in the water table.
"This will balance out when we start to get more rain and the lake will begin to return to previous levels.
"The Facebook post was written by a member of staff in good faith attempting to help a member of the public with an enquiry about water levels in the lake.
"It appears that person was not fully aware of the latest developments and the conversation with the contractor, in which the question of whether it had been caused by the tram works was rejected."
A spokesman for construction contractors Taylor Woodrow Alstom said: "There is nothing further we can add to the council's comment."
