Petersfield Town Council’s Grounds Committee has approved the renewal of its Pesticides Policy
Petersfield Town Council is pleased to announce that it is taking the lead in the town in seeking to reduce the level of pesticide use on publicly owned land. The approved policy has been shared with both East Hampshire District Council and Hampshire County Council with the request that both authorities seek to similarly respond to the Policy and its objectives in the way that they plan to manage pesticide use through the rest of the town.
The Pesticides Policy was brought in as part of the Council’s response to declaring a Climate Emergency with the express intention of reducing the level of pesticide use on the recreation grounds, sports pitches and public open spaces that the Council maintains. In particular the Council wished to reduce the amount of glyphosate used as part of its regular maintenance regime.
The Grounds Manager, Dugg Budd reported that the use of glyphosate had been reduced significantly and was only being used sparingly in areas and for activities where there was no other realistic option available. He reported that a total of 900ml of glyphosate has been used in the last year, representing a reduction of over 50% in usage. This has been achieved by utilising other methods of weed control and reducing the number of occasions when spraying is carried out from 4 down to 2 per year.
I am pleased with the reduction in the use of glyphosate that our Grounds team is achieving. We will continue to limit its use as much as possible.
This is good news. Lets hope that this year the hacking down of beautiful wildflower verges doesn’t take place and also ‘do gooding’ individuals are not allowed to remove wild flowers from kerbs.