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25
Feb
Council expected to reject weedkiller restriction
A budget amendment aimed at stopping North Yorkshire Council’s use of controversial weedkillers is expected to be rejected at a full council meeting on Wednesday.
Last February, Andy Brown, Green councillor for the Aire Valley, tabled an amendment proposing:
To reduce the budget for mowing and spraying by at least £100,000 a year and to cease all purchases of any products containing glyphosate or neonicotinoids.
In 2023, the council spent £140,000 on mowing and spraying operations.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the common weedkiller Roundup, but has been linked in recent years to several health problems, including cancer.
Neonicotinoids are another kind of pesticide and have been blamed for the collapse in insect populations, especially bee colonies.
But following a debate at last year’s council meeting, the amendment was withdrawn and referred to the council’s Scrutiny of Health committee.
That body has now published its report ahead of Wednesday’s meeting. Although it recommends that the motion not be upheld, it also recommends that the council reduces it glyphosate usage and explores alternatives – apparently in acknowledging of alleged problems with the substances.
The evidence against glyphosate is not conclusive. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization, classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”, but other large-scale evidence reviews have not backed this up.
In the United States, damages have been awarded to several plaintiffs, and manufacturer Bayer, which bought Roundup-maker Monsanto in 2018, has had to pay out billions of dollars in damages to several plaintiffs, but cases brought in Australia have been rejected by the courts.
Cllr Brown said:
The report says there’s no consensus, but in the US, Bayer have paid out $10.9 billion in compensation, which to me indicates a serious problem. You don’t shell out that sort of money if everything’s OK – you shell out that sort of money when things are not OK.
Glyphosate is approved for use in the UK until December 2025.
The European Union announced that it would renew approval of glyphosate for a further 10 years in November 2023, although some members states have acted to restrict its use.
North Yorkshire Council contracts North Yorkshire Highways to undertake weed spraying of highways (subcontracted to Thirsk-based DTMS Group) until May 2025, with options to extend until May 2032.
The work is sub-contracted to Thirsk-based DTMS Group, which is responsible for treating 917km of roads in the Harrogate district alone, as well as 840km of footpaths.
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