If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter, you’re probably aware that we are planning to present our petition asking the City Council to stop spraying pesticides in the parks to the full council meeting on Thursday 7th July. We’re trying to collect as many signatures as possible in the last few weeks. If we reach 750 signatures of people who live, work or study in Leicester, a senior council officer will be called to a public meeting to respond.
Thank you to everyone who has signed and shared it recently –
the petition has grown significantly in the last fortnight so it’s working! If
you haven’t signed and shared yet, there is still time. We’ll also be having
one last street stall to collect paper signatures on Saturday 25th
June, on the edge of Victoria Park.
As part of our research for this campaign, we submitted a
Freedom of Information request to the City Council to find out more about their
use of pesticides on pavements over the last three years. We were particularly
interested in this time period, as we saw more wild plants in the streets in
2020 and early 2021.
We asked the frequency with which the pavements were sprayed
with pesticides in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and the chemicals that were used. They
responded:
2019
Number of treatments - 3
Commenced – 08.04.19, 08.07.19, 14.09.19
Chemical – Glyphosate (this is a herbicide, designed to kill
plants but known to have other effects as well – see below).
2020
Number of treatments - 1
Period - April - Oct
Chemical – Glyphosate, No mix
2021
Number of treatments - 3
Commenced – 17.05.21, 26.07.21, 03.10.21
Chemical – Glyphosate, Rosate adjuvant
We also asked if they could tell us the number of reported
trips and falls due to ‘weeds’ in the pavements in the same years. They
responded:
Number of reported weed concerns:
2019 – 13
2020 – 56
2021 – 17
Number of reported trips and falls:
2019 – 4
2020 – 2
2021 – 0
We found these numbers interesting, because it seems to show
that having more wild plants in the pavements (as there were in 2020 and early
2021) doesn’t lead to more trips and falls. On the other hand, the increase in wild
plant diversity and abundance was very apparent. Two local botanists came to
our May meeting and told us that in 2020, they recorded 361 species of wild
plant on 20 streets in Leicester. They found a similar number when they
surveyed a comparable area of unimproved natural habitat. Cities don’t have to
be botanical deserts. In fact, left alone, nature can thrive in a city. We just
need to give it the chance.
The City Council seem to be more concerned about the
complaints they receive about ‘weedy’ pavements. And yet, many of us are
worried about the use of glyphosate in the city, especially when we see the evidence
that it is linked to cancer in humans and harms wild bee colonies. Therefore,
if you’ve signed our petition and you are wondering what to do next, we
encourage you to write to your councillors and complain about the use of
herbicides in Leicester. You can use the Write To Them website to easily find
your councillors and send them an email. You don’t have to be an expert – just explain
why you are worried. But if you would like more information to quote in your email,
Pesticide Action Network have some useful information here. And if your
councillors respond, we’d love to know! Forward us any responses you receive to
help us plan the next steps of the campaign: leicesterfoe@gmail.com
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