CORNWALL Council has decided to maintain its 13-year-old ban on the chemical weedkiller glyphosate following concerns it is a significant risk to health and ecology.

Councillors voted 61 to seven to challenge Cornwall Council’s decision to reintroduce the chemical weed treatment, which is pending public consultation and a review by the health and safety executive.

A public demonstration was staged outside County Hall/Lys Kernow in Truro, ahead of the full meeting of Cornwall Council.

Protestors waved various banners including “Poison spread-nature’s dead” and “Bee the solution Save Nature.”

The cabinet has been requested to recognise that the decision to reintroduce chemical weed treatment using glyphosate represents a significant policy reversal with ecological, public health and democratic implications for communities across Cornwall.

Trenance Cornwall councillor Drew Creek, who called the motion, also asked for the Cabinet to pause the commencement of chemical weed treatment currently scheduled for May 2026 until a meaningful public consultation process has been completed.

It was additionally asked to recognise the “wholly inadequate” three week opt out window provided to parish and town councils, which included Easter. They must commit to extending this to 30 days after the public consultation results have been published.

The motion also called for town and parish councils to be given more clarity on the minimum required standards of the urban network, and urgently review the financial terms of the opt-out scheme, which as currently structured are “coercive.”

It also stated town and parish councils should be able to exercise their democratic right to refuse glyphosate treatment.

Concerns were raised town and parish councils would be penalised by the removal of wider targeted estate improvement works and offered funding covering only the chemical treatment element, £343.45 per km, leaving them to bear the full additional cost of alternative weed management, waste clearance and public liability insurance from their own precept.

Cllr Creek said: “Today Cornwall Council did the right thing.

“Thirteen thousand residents signed petitions. Two hundred healthcare workers wrote to this council. All six Cornish MPs raised their concerns. And this chamber listened.

“This was never about just about weeds they definitely need to be dealt with. It was about whether a decision with serious implications for public health, for our pollinators, for our ocean, and for the democratic choices of town and parish councils across Cornwall would be made properly, with the public, not behind closed doors over Easter.

“The amendment that was put forward today would have let the spraying begin in May and called that a victory. This chamber saw through it. Now the real work begins.

“I want Cornwall Council and town and parish councils to work together in genuine partnership to find solutions that keep our streets clean without putting a probable human carcinogen into our drains, our rivers and our sea. That is not an impossible ask.

“Dozens of councils across the country are already doing it. Cornwall can lead on this and today’s vote means we now have the chance to.

“I’m the mayor of Newquay and a father of three. I came into that chamber today because I don’t want my children splashing around in poison. Today, this council agreed that’s a reasonable thing to ask.”