A CAMPAIGN to make the Borders a pesticide-free region has been launched amid concerns over the council’s use of a chemical weed killer.

The use of the controversial chemical glyphosate in parks and open spaces resulted in more than 50 people contacting Peebles Community Council calling for it to be banned.

And despite assurances from Scottish Borders Council (SBC) that the chemical used to kill weeds is “licensed and safe”, fears for public health have ignited the formation of a group called ‘Pesticide Free Peebles’.

The ‘Pesticide Free Balerno’ campaign – and the mass of public support – resulted in Edinburgh City Council agreeing to abstain from all weed control in 2020. The city council also agreed to trial the herbicide-free weed control solution Foamstream this year.

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Now Peeblesshire resident Kim Linge want to see SBC following suit, and she is backed by Tweeddale councillors and Peebles Community Council.

At the town’s community council meeting this month, Ms Linge said an alternative solution can be found to keeping the parks weed-free and suggested inviting the manufacturers of Foamstream to demonstrate their product in Peebles.

Chairman Les Turnbull agreed adding that it would be a “useful addition to the park armoury”.

He said: “I suspect it’ll be very expensive and way beyond what a community council can do, but this is really a question to our councillors.

“Given this Foamstream can be used for weed-killing and it can also be used for cleaning park equipment, I wondered if there would be any mileage in offering up Peebles as a pilot for SBC to test this machine and see if it offers a way forward to reduce our dependence on glyphosate.”

Tweeddale councillors Shona Haslam and Heather Anderson met Ms Linge and campaigners from Pesticide Free Scotland.

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Mrs Haslam said: “We had a good discussion about how we can take this forward and there’s going to be a group set up, Pesticide Free Peebles, that’s also going to be doing some work in terms of public opinion and making sure that we’ve got everyone on side with this because people do like their weeds killed.

“The sustainability committee of the council is looking at this in terms of a council-wide response, but I’ll certainly mention to them the willingness of Peebles to be considered as a pilot site for any measures that we take.”

Tweeddale East councillor Robin Tatler is giving his backing to the campaign. “The chemical that we’re talking about isn’t just used in the parks – it’s used on the pavements as well to keep down what might be classed as weeds,” the independent representative said.

“That work has now completed for this year, but I know the neighbourhood services parks and environments people are more than happy to look at alternatives.”