13 UK bee species have gone extinct. The UK butterfly population has halved since the 1970s with 1 in 10 becoming extinct. Flying insect numbers have plunged by 60% since 2004. Biodiversity is essential for all, but it is in rapid decline. 

City of York Council recently renewed the contract to continue spraying weedkiller for up to four years. The most commonly used pesticide, Roundup, which contains the active ingredient glyphosate and other surfactants, is harmful to bees and pollinators, pets, damages soil health, and is linked to non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in humans. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as a ‘probable carcinogen’ in 2015. This pesticide is sprayed on our streets, pavements, verges and up to the air bricks of many York terraces, three times a year between March and September.

We call on CYC to implement a phase-out plan, which includes pesticide-free trials, with an aim to end their use of glyphosate and other chemical methods of urban weed management by 2025 at the latest. 

We ask CYC to better manage the interim by:

• Acting on the Pollinator policy and actively engaging York residents in environmental regeneration, starting now
• Publishing a street map of when spraying will take place
• Enabling residents to weed their own streets and avoid spraying where possible 
• Publishing a commitment to a 250-metre exclusion zone from the River Ouse and all bodies of water, including ponds in Rowntree’s Park and elsewhere
• Ensuring that the contractor is spraying in a targeted way i.e. spot-spraying weeds, rather than blanket spraying
• Ensuring accountability so that the contract is delivered safely and effectively for all – currently it doesn’t even do what it is supposed to do properly

The UK’s 22 million gardens, as well as parks, road verges and other urban green spaces could form a network of wildlife friendly habitats. But, this will only work if we stop spraying pesticides.

A petition calling for the UK Government to ban urban and garden pesticides was recently supported by: PAN UK, RSPB, One Planet York, Alliance for Cancer Prevention, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill Campaign, Friends of the Earth, Garden Organic, Greenpeace, Organic Farmers & Growers, Parkinson’s UK, Real Farming Trust, Savitri Trust, Soil Association, Songbird Survival & Wildlife Gardening Forum, One Planet York, and Wild York.

Prof Goulson, Biologist of Surrey University and author of Silent Earth says “It is simply crazy to spray poisons in our streets, parks & gardens for cosmetic purposes, where they harm bees & other wildlife & pose a risk to human health. We rely on insects to deliver a range of vital “ecosystem services” – such as pollination, and recycling of corpses & dung. They are food for many larger organisms. Without them, our ecosystem will collapse.”

France banned all use of synthetic pesticides in public spaces in 2017 and banned garden use from 2019. In Canada, 170 cities and towns are pesticide-free, some of them having been so for 30 years. More than 70 towns and cities across the UK have already taken major steps towards going pesticide-free. These chemicals are not needed.

How can you help?

• Sign the petition
• Tell your local councillor you don’t want your streets, parks and playgrounds sprayed with herbicides, and ask for a city-wide alternative.
• Get together with friends and neighbours and ask to opt out of the spraying, by weeding your pavements and verges yourselves, or for others who can’t, until CYC develops a healthy system for all
• Plant wildflowers and pollinator friendly species in your garden and on any empty spaces
• Be more tolerant of nature: decaying wood, old leaves and some undergrowth is home to many vital insects, small mammals including hedgehogs, birds, and ultimately all of us. Without pollinators and insects our food chain will collapse.
• Befriend/reclaim your alleyway; plant small or espaliered fruit trees along the back walls, use raised containers, make them child and wildlife friendly and help these neglected areas of land to shine.

References:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7047665/Many-bee-species-extinct-threat-UK-report-says.html​

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9137733/UK-butterfly-population-cut-HALF-past-45-years.html​

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/05/flying-insect-numbers-have-plunged-by-60-since-2004-gb-survey-finds​

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/05/canaries-in-the-coalmine-loss-of-birds-signals-changing-planet​

https://pesticidecollaboration.org/experts-call-for-the-uk-government-to-ban-urban-and-garden-pesticides/​

https://www.pan-uk.org/make-my-town-pesticide-free/