THE leader of the Green Party on Mendip District Council is urging residents to join a weed clean up next month.
Frome resident, cllr Shane Collins has made a film as a call to arms for the proposed street hoe down in Frome on 26th and 27th September.
Mendip District Council has announced that Frome and Easton have been chosen to take part in their manual weed management trials which aim to tackle weed control without the use of glyphosate – a weed killer linked to cancer and toxic to birds and insects.
The council says, “In September 2019, the council took the decision to stop using glyphosate. The search goes on for an effective substitute but until that time, weeding by hand (and hoe), is the way forward for Mendip.”
In his post on Facebook cllr Collins says, “We have three options.
“1. We can leave the weeds to grow and regard them as flowers.
“Fine for flowers in the summer but the long term problem of build up of dead foliage, soil and litter, eventually leading to bigger plants, bushes and cracked pavements as well as looking a mess.
“2. Do nothing and go back to Round Up or ID Verde hand weeding.
“Round Up is recognised as a carcinogen. Bayer have set aside $10.9 Billion to pay law suits to 95,000 people in USA with more to follow. (2) It is not responsible for MDC to continue using Round Up and too expensive for IDVerde to weed leading to increased Council Tax.
“3. Street Hoe Down.
“Can you get together with neighbours and get hoeing and weeding to tidy your street on two weekends per year in the autumn and spring?
“In the time trial in the film we did 67m in 32 minutes with two people. So let’s make it a street event with tea, cake, soup etc. A way of meeting your neighbours and making a local difference and community bonding. We are looking at 26/27 September if enough people are interested.
“So let’s get together and do this ourselves! All it needs is a hoe, broom, shovel, you and the neighbours.”
Anyone interested can leave their name, street and email at the following link:
https://www.mendip.gov.uk/communityweeding
