I am asking all parish clerks, to please print out the attached ragwort poster, and put it up on your village notice board, so that everybody gets a chance to see what this poisonous weed looks like in its various stages.
Click HERE for the poster (PDF)
Obviously when you read the poster you will see that I am hoping that you can report back details to myself of where ragwort is growing and not being dealt with in your area. Please email any detail to me on ragwort@oxfordshire.gov.uk
Also below is a list of web sites that give more information on Ragwort:
www.defra.gov.uk
www.newforestnpa.gov.uk
www.surreycc.gov.uk
www.rhs.org.uk
www.thedonkeysanctury.org.uk
www.nfuonline,com
www.bhs.org.uk
And put in a search for ragwort
Your help with stopping the spread of Ragwort is much appreciated.
Yours sincerely
Elaine Burton-Johnson
Administrative Officer
Highways & Transport
Environment & Economy
Oxfordshire County Council
Speedwell House
Speedwell Street
Oxford OX1 1NE
Tel: Highway Enquiries 0845 310 1111
Your list of websites for more information should include http://www.buglife.org.uk/conservation/campaigns/Ragwort because that site has balanced information about minimising the harm done by ragwort whilst avoiding unnecessary environmental damage.
Many thanks for your input. The list of websites was supplied by Oxfordshire CC, so perhaps a note to them would be useful?
I found the web information provided by John Robertson to be very interesting. With so many invertebrates being in danger, and even more so after the strange weather perhaps we should leave much of our ragwort where it is. I had wondered if the yellow flowers along the A361 and the Middleton Cheney Road was ragwort. I’ll leave Cherwell District Council and the Highways Department to decide that one.
As long as ragwort is kept out of livestock fields and horse riders do not allow horses to chew on ragwort we should not have a problem.
Let all of us do what we can to protect our invetebrate habitats.
Thankyou, John Robertson
The biggest harbourer of ragwort is the council themselves making it a never ending problem for landowners to keep on top of the problem when roadside verges and pockets of waste land are allowed to go to seed year on year without being removed, at least if they were mown it would stop them going to seed and drastically reduce the spread.
I agree with Pam totally. My observations were compounded when driving down the M40 to London recently. Sadly, I believe the bureaucracy of the Council find it difficult to get someone to take responsibility for cutting or removing the ragwort. I have not seen any ragwort in the farmed fields, only along the roads and in the allotments. My own ragwort plant is a wonderful habitat for more bee like insects than I ever knew existed. I will cut it down before it goes to seed.