Wednesday, 15 July 2020

Control of Ragwort

I received a query recently relating to the growth and control of ragwort. It's not something I'm overly familiar with so I passed the query to the countryside and ecology sections for their attention.

This is the response I received:

This is something that crops up regularly this time of year when the plant is in flower, although there is often misidentification of plants that look similar, so it’s always important to check first.  Resource is the biggest issue here, so each case needs to be considered in isolation on a risk basis.  I understand that Natural England may have powers to enforce clearance, see guidance below:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/stop-ragwort-and-other-harmful-weeds-from-spreading#what-natural-england-will-do

Although the council does not have a policy on invasive weeds it will treat areas when notified about a problem presenting a particularly high risk on DCC-owned land. In such cases the council would need to be provided with specific locations so that an on-site assessment could be made.