A SUSPECTED poison outbreak killing wild animals and making pets sick in Addingham could pose a risk to children, a parish councillor fears.

Officials from national and local government agencies are investigating the outbreak to discover what is behind the series of deaths.

So far Bradford Council experts say there is no need to keep children or dogs away from the land but parish councillor Sheila McLachlan is not convinced. She said she had alerted dog owners about the problem.

She said: “It has been a really serious business. People keep asking me what is happening. I am certainly not taking my dog in there. It is a popular area with dog owners and children. They come over the stream and into the play area which is perhaps even more of a worry than the dogs.”

In the last few months the corpses of rabbits, squirrels, moles and shrews have been found in an area around Marchup Beck, which runs through the Stamp Hill allotments on Silsden Road.

Coun McLachlan has been liaising with officials from the Environment Agency and Bradford Council in a bid to uncover the source of the outbreak at the popular dog walking area.

She said: “There are all sorts of rumours going around the village – we have no idea what it is and, what’s more, the experts haven’t yet.”

A dead sheep was also found in the area. Poison was suspected but as far as officials can tell it died from natural causes.

Coun McLachlan said: “We don’t know what is causing it. There were quite a lot of dead animals around the beck. We have had three dogs that have been very ill and the vet said he thought it was poison.

“A number of other dogs have been sick; my dog has been sick. This alerted us that something was wrong.”

A Bradford Council spokesman said: “We are looking into this complaint about dead animals found in the allotments at Addingham.

“It is unlikely that the land is contaminated as it has not been used in the past in a way which could have caused pollution.

“We are looking at other possible causes, such as poison being put down deliberately, for example to tackle pest problems.

“We are working closely with the Environment Agency and we will be testing discharges from a pipe which come out during heavy rain, but need to wait for wet weather to do this. We have not taken any soil samples as this is not necessary for our investigations.

“Our team have found one dead sheep on the land – but this appears to have died from natural causes. We have not found any other dead animals and at this point there is no evidence to suggest that children or animals should be kept away from the land.

“We are keeping the parish council informed of all our actions and the progress of the investigation.”

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “We are working with Bradford Council to discover the source of the pollution. If anyone sees anything or has any more information they should telephone the Environment Agency hotline on 0800 807060.”

Bill Preston, chairman of the Addingham Allotments and Gardens Association brought the matter up at the last meeting of the parish council because he feared the finger of suspicion could be pointed at members.

Recently allotment holders were granted parish council cash for a fence to keep rabbits away from the allotments.

After the meeting, Mr Preston said allotment owners were not to blame.

He said: “These days you can’t get anything powerful enough to kill insects, never mind animals. Most allotment holders have dogs – they are not going to put something down which will harm animals.”

“It has gone on for the last two or three months. I did not want the allotment holders being accused of something that is nothing to do with them.”

The drainpipe under investigation could be channelling material from the former village tip which was covered over and landscaped to create a nature reserve and walking area further up the road.

Mr Preston also thinks that the poison could have been released into the beck further upstream from where the dead animals have been found.