A call to arms!!..Ragwort on the highways

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Silent Knight

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Once again I'm having my annual battle with the council over their motorway verges seeding ragwort on to my field. I spend hundreds of pounds each year in spray and tractor use trying to keep my field safe for my horses and each year the motorway verges seed on to my land.

I'm sick of being fobbed off and basicly lied to by the council. If more people complained and reported Ragwort left to grow on the motorways and rough land, maybe the councils would do their duty and maintain the verges and then less horses would died a slow and painful death each year.

Please report any unkemp verges and make the councils realise that there are thousands of people who care about the welfare of horses and we should not be ignored!:mad:
 
What surprised me the most is that it isn't an offense to have a severe ragwort infestation in your field. I phoned the RSPCA about a group of 11 horses and 6 foals in a field completely and utterly infested by ragwort, and apparently they can't do anything until a horse is ill/killed from the poisoning! Surely by then they could have 17 horses dead in a field? I mean fair enough with just a few plants but hundreds is a different matter!
 
If it is near fields used for grazing animals or cutting hay then it is not allowed to be grown.

Sounds like another lazy council reason for not stepping up to their responsibilities and putting our horses at risk.
 
I can't believe how much ragwort there is here in town. I had to stop my baby nephew picking some in my parents lawn the other week, he grabbed a handful of grass which included some ragowort and it was heading for his mouth....... Parents weren't aware of what it was and how poisonous it is. Dad was out with the spray soon after and kids kept indoors until it had died and been dug up.

It is all over the grass verges in town.
 
jinglejoys said:
Its one bloomin moth!!!!! and it can go back to eating groundsil like it used to!
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I know. We complained about ragwort running riot on council land where they had planted some new trees, close to my parents farm and our horses. I got no response to the initial complaint, and then we noticed a leaflet about the new tree planting, and there was a picture of a butterfly on a ragwort on the front of the leaflet! So, I sent the leaflet in, with a letter, to be told that there are no grazed fields in the vicinity that they are aware of (WHICH WAS WRONG, as my parents fields border as close as 200m from the councils 'ragwort reserve') and they told me the plant was not considered to be a nuisance in the environment it was in, and gave me some stats on how important it can be ....
 
murphysgirl said:
It is actualy illegal to alow this weed to grow and seed on your land. I think its the weed act 1957 which covers it.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2010/08/02/ragwort/

Councils are a law unto themselves. They should be held responsible.
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hmmm...thats funny as you'd think the RSPCA would be able to do something....they told me to contact the landowner and tell them and then if they still don't sort it then contact some countryside agency or something...difficult route to take as the landowner seems to be very hidden!
 
Murphysgirl and anyone else next to Motorway or trunk roads complain to the Highways Agency--local councils do not look after these roads
 
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