Hopes of a reprieve for geese in York's Rowntree Park were raised after a conservation group volunteered to move them to a sanctuary

Hopes of a reprieve for geese in York's Rowntree Park were raised after a conservation group volunteered to move them to a sanctuary.

One of the Canada Geese under threat in Rowntree Park.

But today they seemed doomed after the rescue bid was thwarted by Whitehall.

Conservationists had hoped to secure a government licence to allow them to move the 72 birds, which are threatened with a cull, to a sanctuary in Surrey.

But the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions turned down the transfer request made by the group Care for the Wild, saying it would only move the problem from one area to another.

Coun Martin Brumby, chairman of City of York Council's leisure services, said all options had now been exhausted.

He said: "No one on the council or in York wants to kill the geese, but as a council you have to make tough decisions as well as easy ones."

Coun Brumby said scientific experts had told the council that the most humane way of dealing with the problem was to have a cull.

"We went the extra mile to see if we could get a deal together to save the geese, but have been refused a licence," he said.

"There is now only one option left."

Care for the Wild put forward the proposal to move the Canada Geese to the swan sanctuary in Outwood, Surrey, following the council's decision to cull the geese by lethal injection.

Coun Brumby said the cull would now go ahead at "the appropriate time of year".

He said the delay in the cull would mean the problems caused by the geese would be exacerbated, as they would be able to breed before they are killed.

There are concerns that the geese's droppings pose a health hazard.

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