OUR PETITION T0 CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCIL (2021)
In January 2021, we launched our petition to Cambridge City Council. We needed 500 local signatures in order for our demands to be discussed in a council meeting, and in the end we managed to gather over 700 signatures. This played a role in the herbicide-free motion in 2022, to the council introducing herbicide-free trials that year, and to setting up a working group that we now sit on, and to rolling out herbicide-free methods across the city in 2024. While they have taken into account many of our requests, as of Oct 2024, we are still pushing for more effective communication plans as outlined in point 3 below, and for the council to lead in encouraging other stakeholders to follow suit.
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Thank you everyone that signed our petition and to the comments that you added to the site. Your support has been invaluable!
Our demands to the council were as follows:
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Commit to phasing out all synthetic, non-agricultural pesticides - including both herbicides and insecticides- in all areas that they are responsible for managing, within three years.
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Trial non-toxic alternatives to weed management this year (2021) on pathways, roads, pavements and street infrastructure (lampposts, trees, benches etc) that it manages on the behalf of Cambridgeshire County Council, and to establish constructive dialogue with the latter in order to make Cambridge pesticide-free.
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Establish a communications campaign, by the end of 2021 in liaison with partners across the city, including Pesticide-Free Cambridge, to encourage stakeholders, schools, business owners and members of the public to phase out and ultimately end pesticide use in the City of Cambridge.
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We feel that 'public education' and the need for the council to play a role in shifting attitudes about the role of 'nature' in towns is key here, hence our emphasis on the council's duty to run awareness building campaigns that fit with their 2019 declaration of a biodiversity crisis.
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