Petition to stop council using pesticide gathers over 25,000 signatures

A bee visits a brightly coloured orange flower - the petition calls for the council to stop using glyphosate pesticide
-Credit: (Image: LDR)


More than 26,000 people have signed a petition calling for North East Lincolnshire Council to stop using a pesticide.

Full council will meet at Cleethorpes Town Hall on Thursday, September 26, and debate the petition. It calls for the council to stop using glyphosate pesticide.

This can be found in weedkiller products. Freshney Comrades members, including The Canoe River Cleaner, have organised the petition.

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The petition begins: "Where are all the Bees, Insects and Birds? Chattering Sparrows, soaring Swallows? How many Butterflies have you seen this year? When was the last time you saw a Wasp?" It lays blame for declining biodiversity at least in part at the door of "the widespread use of toxic weedkillers".

As well as a phase out of use of glyphosate in favour of non-chemical alternatives, the petition also calls for the council to work with Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN), who support local authorities to become pesticide free.

It had almost 22,000 signatures when submitted to council a few weeks ago. That number had risen further by Monday September 23 to 26,333 supporters. The petition was only launched on July 19.

Its organisers are James Elliot, also known as The Canoe River Cleaner, Zac Robinson of Pick Walks, and Katie Teakle. The petition has also received support from some councillors, who are expected to speak in its favour on Thursday.

"I'm incredibly encouraged by the phenomenal amount of signatures on our petition," said James Elliot. "The subject has clearly resonated with people so much that they have shared it with their friends and passed it on.

Grimsby's canoe river cleaner James Elliot, pictured, is one of the people behind the strongly supported petition
Grimsby's canoe river cleaner James Elliot, pictured, is one of the people behind the strongly supported petition -Credit:The Canoe River Cleaner

"This year has seen a noticeable decline in the numbers of pollinators," he said. Factors including the weather contributed, but he said "we cannot ignore the general downward trend in species numbers due to habitat fragmentation and loss, climate change, and the way we intensively farm.

"For the most part, it's down to human activity, hence the petition to end the use of glyphosate within our local authority and do everything we can to increase biodiversity." It was vital the bottom of the food chain is looked after as a healthy, balanced ecosystem depends upon it, he said.

He said "this isn't a battle" as every forward-thinking person recognises the need to be environmentally friendly. He continued: "So getting around the table will allow us to discuss how we bring about change, and what that looks like for all involved.

"We're moving forward together, and that's how it should be." Ms Teakle told Grimsby Live that a scene at Cleethorpes Boating Lake with weedkillers applied to near hedges there, prompted her involvement and contacting The Canoe River Cleaner. "When I rang him, I was very distressed about it, it was in the summer. I saw them in their hazmat suits, all around the boating lake."

She called it "totally unnecessary" and highlighted the wildlife that visit the Boating Lake. "This is where the wild birds feed. I just found it unbelievably distressing."

The area's wildlife had prompted Ms Teakle and her husband to move to Cleethorpes, four decades ago. "That's why we live here, that's what brought us to the area, that fact it's a migration path for the wildlife."

Within a week of the local petition's launch, PAN and the RSPB began a nationwide call to get the government to ban the use of pesticides in urban areas. "What we're asking for is for the the local authority, to make a commitment to this," said Ms Teakle of ending the use of glyphosate in North East Lincolnshire. She added she personally would like to see wood chippings in public parks, and available for people to use, as an alternative.