Work to remove toxic blue-green algae from Brightlingsea’s boating lake is continuing.

Since the bloom was detected in May, the Promenade Way lake has been off-limits for public use, preventing its use by the Brightlingsea Model Boat Club and the rowing boat hire operated by the 4th Brightlingsea Scouts.

Attempts to rectify the situation, oversee by Brightlingsea Town Council’s grounds manager Terry Hamilton, have included pumping salt water in to the lake for 21 hours, churning the water mechanically – moving around 10 million cubic metres of water in the process – and opening the sluice gates ten times.

The council’s latest move has been to add dye to the water, which is intended to prevent sunlight getting to the algae and hopefully killing it off.

Update, July 4: Further testing has shown that levels of algae remain high and the lake will remain closed until further notice.