A POND may sound like the perfect place to keep fish - but one North-East authority disagrees.

Darlington Borough Council is planning to "evict" fish from a pond and move them elsewhere - in order to protect other species.

Anglers are enraged at the decision and have pledged to fight to keep the fish at Brinkburn Pond, which is in a designated local nature reserve.

They have already been told they must stop fishing and signs prohibiting the sport are due to be erected in the next few weeks.

Angler Jason Lennon, 25, said: "The pond has been a fishing venue for years, long before it became a nature reserve.

"They can't just say we are not allowed to fish it any more."

Philip Roxby, the authority's local nature reserves officer, said fish in large numbers and sizes were "extremely bad for many aquatic dependent species".

But Mr Lennon said: "I can think of no reason why they think the fish can be harmful to other species."

A council spokesman said a handful of fishermen were also causing a problem by building platforms to fish from and leaving litter.

"We lost 50 per cent of wading birds nests because of fishermen trampling through areas where the birds were building them," he said.