​Now that we have achieved our principal aim of getting Cambridge City Council to go herbicide-free, our three year Manifesto for 2024-27, involves concentrating our efforts on the following areas (in order of priority). UPDATED 16 MAY 2026. 

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1. Our national campaign to ban insecticidal powders, commonly used for ants, and with devastating impacts on non-target wildlife, biodiversity, and human health, especially for vulnerable populations. An online petition will be launched in June 2026. 
    

2. Our national campaign, working with partners and policy-makers to achieve greater transparency over pesticide usage, and pesticide-free practices, in institutional policy relating to both biodiversity/sustainability, as well as health equality and disability access, in light of the special challenges that low-dose pesticide exposure can pose to those with allergies or hypersensitivities to active ingredients. An online petition will be launched in June 2026. 
    

3. Building on existing research and activist collaborations and networks, to maximise the impact and reach of our campaigns. This includes collaboration and data-sharing with initiatives such as the Pesticides and Urban Nature (PUN) project  which documents the social-ecological impacts of anti-pesticide campaigning and related policy-change including changing behaviours and attitudes surrounding 'pests', 'weeds', and 'chemical exposure’, and working with our network of campaigning allies and volunteers. An initial report on the PUN Project’s research is coming out in October 2026 (details to follow). 
    

4. Our work with Pesticide-Free Cambridge Colleges campaign, for which we held our second Roundtable meeting with Head Gardeners and Estates/Facilities teams in November 2024, where we presented the preliminary results of our pesticides-in-colleges audit (in collaboration with UCL PUN Project). Other discussion points included how to improve communication between gardeners and estates teams, and how to tackle insecticidal-powder use in and around the built environment. Further events for summer 2026 are currently being planned. 
    

5. Continuing to work with Cambridge City Council, as members of its Herbicide-Reduction Working Group, to improve how it communicates its new herbicide-free policies to the public, both to encourage support, but also to encourage a wider shift to fully pesticide-free practices by other landowners throughout the city. 
    

6. Working directly with other landowners and stakeholders in Cambridge, including Cambridge University, residents, colleges, schools, hospitals, to tackle ongoing pesticide-use in these areas (including both herbicides and insecticides), so as to complement the City Council’s move to herbicide-free methods on publicly owned or managed land. 
    

7. Our local and national pesticide-free schools campaign.
   
   
   
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For enquiries about collaborating on any of the above initiatives, please get in touch by clicking the 'contact us' button.  

Alternatively email us on: info@pesticidefreecambridge.org
You can also contact us via our social media pages below.