An angling club's wait for answers is over after it was revealed 'thousands' of fish died at the lagoon they use due to natural causes.

On August 1 'thousands' of fish were discovered dead or dying in Peatmoor Lagoon.

With Peatmoor Angling Club members devastated, the spontaneous and unexpected nature of the deaths led to an investigation into the cause by the Environment Agency.

Over the course of the investigation, the government body had already ruled out the presence of sewage in the water, but test results have now been returned showing that there appears to be no contamination of any kind, leading to a conclusion of natural causes.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “Specialist officers have concluded the fish deaths in Peatmoor Lagoon in August were likely to be unfortunately due to natural causes and the heightened water temperature during the summer months.

Swindon Advertiser: “A thorough investigation, which included testing the water, found no evidence of pollution. At the time, we increased oxygen levels in the lake for the remaining fish, and we’ll help the club restock with different species of fish, and provide aeration equipment to handle future incidents – all funded through income from fishing licences. 

“We are grateful to members of the public who contacted us about what happened in August, and encourage anyone else to report fish in distress or other environmental incidents in rivers and lakes to our incident hotline: 0800 807060.”  

The angling club had already begun the process of sourcing new fish to restock the lake, which the EA has helped with, but was reluctant to actually do so until it had been given the all-clear by the test results. 

But despite being told by a representative of the Environment Agency that the water tests would be 'fast-tracked and take four days to come back' there was a wait of over eight weeks for them, which a spokesperson for Peatmoor Angling Club said left them in a 'frustrating limbo'.

"It felt like we were being kept in the dark," they said, "One of my concerns was that we've lost so much fish that our members might not even come back, so getting things back to normal was a big priority.

"But we weren't able to do that because everything took so long."

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency confirmed the club should not have been told the results would come back in four days. 

The club is now fundraising for much-needed funds to repopulate the lagoon, you can support them here - https://www.gofundme.com/f/peatmoor-lagoon-fish-loss-disaster.