School keeps pupils inside as wild boar have a field day
A SCHOOL has been forced to stop pupils playing outside and cancel its sports days after coming under siege from a pack of wild boar.
The feral pigs have reduced its grassy playing fields to a churned-up quagmire. And lessons in its outdoor garden have been suspended amid fears for the children’s safety.
The Forest of Dean surrounding Parkend Primary School in Lydney, Gloucs, is populated with hundreds of nomadic wild boar – notorious for attacking pets and ransacking bins. A fully grown sow can weigh 23 stone.
Head teacher Jill Roberts said: “It’s so disappointing. We had this lovely green space and now our 60 children are denied the use of it.
Terrified
“The boar have completely dug it up and the children are really upset.
“They can’t play on it any more, as it’s too uneven to run on.
“It means we can’t hold any football tournaments, play cricket or hold sports days.”
The foraging beasts have also knocked the goalposts out of shape.
Mrs Roberts said: “They came for the first time in the summer holidays and caused a little bit of damage, but this term it has gone from a nice green open space to completely destroyed.
“At first we thought they were jumping over the fence where it had sagged a bit, and we tried to block that. But they just keep getting in.
“We see them regularly, even in the car park when parents turn up to drop their children off.”
Now the school, which sits in the heart of the forest, is appealing for the community to help repair the field and make the boundary boar-proof.
The whole of the school field will need reseeding and levelling and the boundary will need re-fencing – and the school does not have the funds.
Mrs Roberts said: “They’re not bothered about people at all – they show no fear. Last week about 12 of them trotted past, while another caused a road accident outside.
“We love all the wildlife here, but there are so many boar they are making life very difficult at the moment.
“There are definitely a lot more boar around than in the past and I’d say there are too many now. They are damaging our property and putting the children’s safety at risk.”
This is not the first time residents have been under siege from wild boar, which were reintroduced to the forest around 20 years ago. In April the beasts ran riot in a graveyard in nearby Cinderford, jumping over church walls and digging up graves.
The Forestry Commission said it had given the school some advice.
A spokesperson explained: “Feral wild boar are classed as a wild animal and as such do not belong to anyone.
“Land owners and managers may choose to protect their land from feral wild boar by maintaining and strengthening their boundaries.”