Help for family swanning around Spalding

An animal lover with mobility issues blocked roads as her daughter and others helped rescue a family of swans who were causing traffic problems in Spalding town centre on Saturday.

Lorraine Fairall and daughter Melissa got stuck in traffic behind the family of two adult swans and four cygnets who were waddling down Winsover Road, bringing traffic to a crawl at around 1pm

The pair were among the many in the town who wanted to get them to safety and Melissa went out to help guide them.

Lorraine can’t walk very far, but still wanted to help so drove up behind them with hazard lights on to alert other motorists as they were ushered up The Crescent.

Realising they were about to head the wrong way up the one way system she drove round to the front and blocked Vine Street to oncoming vehicles as the birds made their way down before they were led to the River Welland.

“Other drivers must have thought I was mad seeing me standing at the top of the street with my crutches telling them not to drive down,” Lorraine said. “Considering we were only supposed to pop to Sainsbury’s, it turned into a bit of a rescue.

“I felt we needed to do something to help out.

“Melissa went to help the others that were already leading the swans down the street.

“I can’t walk very far so when I could, I drove up behind the family and put my hazard lights on.

“We were going to try and usher them down past the Grammar School, but going down The Crescent would be so much easier, so I went to block the road.

“We also had to get them across to the footbridge to the river and then over the bridge due to the bars on the town side of it.

“It was great to get them back in the water as it took about an hour.

“I think the adult swans knew we were helping them.

“They can get very defensive and aggressive, particularly of their young, but these were fine with those helping pushing the cygnets along when they needed to be.

“They kept just sitting down in the road, presumably because they were exhausted.”

Lorraine and Melissa look after five dogs, two rabbits and canaries at their Thompson Close home and they put a call out on social media to name and thank the other people that helped them.

They include the likes of Corinne Neale and Helen and Mel Bullivant.

“Considering what’s going on, it was lovely to see Spalding people come together to help the swans,” Lorraine continued. “The motorists were great and understanding too.

“The only disappointment is that none of the authorities were able to help us.

“We rang the police and they just said they’d had so many calls about it but did nothing. One police van drove right down by us but didn’t stop or anything.

“We rang the RSPB and RSPCA too, but none of them would help.

“Thankfully the people of Spalding were so good.

“It was quite amazing really and not something you see every day.”