A COUNCIL is extending its healthy eating policy to ducks.

Officials at South Park, in Darlington hope visitors will feed the ducks seed instead of bread. The tradition of feeding the ducks is not under threat, officials said last night, but they hope their advice will give the park's ducks a healthy eating option.

Seed, according to bird experts, is better and more nutritious for ducks than bread, which can fill ponds with silt when left to rot.

Seed will be available from the South Park caf in the coming weeks. Paul Place, park manager, told The Northern Echo the authority was not planning to destroy the "institution" of feeding the ducks.

He said: "All we are going to do is encourage people to feed a better and more healthy alternative than bread, and (we will) ensure that we have supplies of seed and grain at the park.

"If I stopped people feeding the ducks at South Park, I would be the most unpopular man in the North-East. I doubt very much there is an army large enough in the world that could prevent people from feeding the ducks."

Mr Place said he had spent a day last summer monitoring how much bread was being fed to the birds. On a busy Saturday, he estimated that between 90 and 100 loaves were thrown to the ducks.

He said: "It is very early days. It is a plan for the future - for next year when the park really gets under way. What we want to do is just try and educate people."

A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council also reassured worried duck-feeders.

He said: "When the new caf is up and running, we will have bird seed available.

"It is better if you feed birds what they should have, but we are not going to stop people feeding bread, we are just encouraging a healthier option."

Mr Place said the seed would be available at a low price so visitors were not discouraged from buying it.

Andre Farrar, spokesman for the RSPB, said it was just as important for birds to be fed a balanced diet as it was for humans.

He said: "The underlying factor is, while bread does not do any direct harm to the bird, it basically has a low calorific value and so is not going to be as good for birds as providing them with the seeds.

"Birds need the right balance of fat, protein and carbohydrates. If all the bird is eating is bread, it is not getting a balanced diet."