ONE hundred fish have died after a lake filled with toxic algae.

The fish, mainly carp, were starved of oxygen when blue-green algae formed at the beauty spot in Lake Meadows Park, Billericay.

A Basildon Council officer, who monitors the lake, discovered the algae outbreak during a routine check of the water’s oxygen levels at the weekend.

He immediately installed compressors to pump oxygen into the lake and thousands of fish survived, but about 100 died.

Hugh Reynolds, the council’s manager of parks and grounds maintenance, said: “The lake at the park suffers from blue-green algae, which is an annual occurrence.

“Having gone into bloom due to the hot weather, the algae sucks the oxygen out of the water and can sadly start to kill fish.

“When this happened over the weekend, the water officer set up two compressors to pump oxygen into the lake and, along with the Environment Agency, we will continue to monitor the lake over the coming weeks.” Billericay town councillor Terence Gandy went to the lake with local anglers on Sunday morning and found fish being pulled dead from the water by council staff.

Mr Gandy said: “It was an upsetting scene because some of the fish had been in the lake for many years.

“Park staff were in the water retrieving the dead fish and putting them into black bin bags.

“Members of the public were walking past and they were quite shocked to see all the dead fish.”

Basildon Council has banned fishing in the lake until the algae has cleared naturally, and signs have been put up warning people to stay away from the water and to keep their pets clear of it.

Three years ago, a charity dragon boat race scheduled to take place on the lake had to be cancelled because of a similar outbreak of blue-green algae.