Despite a councillor's passionate defence on the use of glyphosate, Congleton Town Council has agreed to ban the use of a potentially hazardous weed killer at children's play areas.

The debate to stop using glyphosate - the world's most widely-used weed killer - was prompted by concerns raised by a Congleton mum with young children.

She met with the town council's chief officer David McGifford, streetscape manager Ruth Burgess and Cllr Robert Douglas last November to put forward her worries.

Two months later the trio attended a follow-up meeting with Cheshire East Highways and Ansa Environmental Services Limited when the town council officers gave a verbal commitment to the mother that glyphosate would not be used in future in children's play areas and the fencing areas surrounding them.

Cllr Douglas proposed that members of Congleton Town Council's virtual community and environment committee formally agreed this verbal commitment at Thursday's meeting.

In a report to the committee Cllr Douglas stated: "Glyphosate has been the subject of a number of debates about its safe use in public spaces.

"In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as 'probably carcinogenic to humans', which was based on limited evidence of cancer from real-world exposures that actually occurred and sufficient evidence in experimental animals from studies of pure glyphosate."

The use of herbicides by the town council has been reduced by about 75 percent in 'the past few years' and it is working towards eliminating the use of glyphosate altogether 'in the near future'.

Speaking in defence of the use of glyphosate, Cllr Margaret Gartside, said: "I felt it's appropriate as a chemistry graduate to speak up on behalf of glyphosate. First of all, I would like to remind you that the world and everything around it is made up of 92 elements and we're all composed of chemicals, as are all other living and non-living things around us.

"Some of those naturally occurring chemicals are in fact toxic to humans, including those in plants that quite a few of us have got in our gardens and the countryside around us. If you look in your kitchen cupboard most of you will have chemicals that are toxic or harmful to humans.

"Familiarity has resulted in us not worrying about the risks these present, we don't consciously notice the warning symbols on the packaging and the same is true of many of our laundry products and the contents of our garage, garden shed and even bathrooms.

"Coming back to glyphosate, it's been in use as an herbicide since 1974 and since then significant research has been carried out on the effects it has on humans, animals and insects. As with most chemicals it needs to be used with care following the instructions, but generally it has been found not to be harmful especially as it doesn't stay in the body when ingested and it's not absorbed through the skin.

"During that period it has been used extensively on food crops especially in the USA and most of the research work, which has been done on its effect when it has been eaten, one scientist commented that a 10kg child would need to consume 385 litres of orange juice every day to reach the threshold of a toxic dose.

"You can see that the amount that is actually coming into human beings is relatively small, we here are discussing the use of glyphosate as a herbicide when it is sprayed to remove weeds that are damaging the infrastructure of our roads and paths.

"Users, who are mainly the people who are at risk from this chemical have to be licensed, they have to wear protective clothing and follow guidelines of its use, glyphosate is quickly broken down by bacteria so it doesn't run into the ground water.

"If we look at the other possible alternatives to spraying these weeds to remove them, the only thing that is viable or works is hand weeding, which you can appreciate is very time consuming and less expensive, there is no other chemical alternative that is actually effective.

"If we think then that any other chemical could be invented/discovered to do the job of glyphosate, it will be an unknown quantity whereas this chemical has been around for 40 years and we know a hell of a lot about it, most of which would suggest it's not especially dangerous.

"The World Health Organisation and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, graded glyphosate at level two 'probably carcinogenic to humans', you'll be interested to know that this is the same classification as they give to red meat, which most of our population eats every day and also fumes from petrol and diesel cars.

"I've not heard of anyone suggesting we ban red meat and whilst I would like to reduce the number of cars on the road because of their toxic fumes both particulates and vapors, nobody has suggested we ban petrol and diesel vehicles, although children especially are very vulnerable to the harm from the fumes, which many of them experience every day, which is unlikely with glyphosate.

"I do think it's sensible to review our use of all chemicals on a regular basis, but please think carefully about banning a chemical that has served a useful purpose and cannot easily be replaced, without herbicides we would not be able to feed the worlds ever growing population."

Cllr Amanda Martin said: "If the Streetscape team can manage with not using this chemical around children's play areas then I would support that, but on the other hand we have a lot of areas in the town where weed killers are absolutely necessary.

"I wouldn't want to dig up all the weeds on the pavements on my road by hand, it's a lot of work. On pavements, roads and places where we aren't going to come into contact with children, we can tell the residents with confidence that it's safe and I think we can go on using glyphosate."

Cllr Paul Duffy, a qualified chemist, said: "Even though there is scientific evidence that is inconclusive for possible carcinogenic, I think we should take leadership here and follow Cllr Douglas' proposal."

Cllr Suzy Firkin queried what Cheshire East Council's position was surrounding the use of glyphosate.

David McGifford, chief officer for Congleton Town Council, stated that Ansa, who undertake the work throughout the borough are still using the chemical, but he added: "There have been some discussions with them, I think the fact that we're looking to take a lead on this is based on local residents concerns and that is the way we have got to look at it."

Cllr Douglas added: "There is definite evidence that glyphosate is harmful to bees, I read something only this morning in Australia and it also spoke about the potential damage to earthworms for up to 180 days.

"Giving the concerns of a young mother who wants to have her children playing in a play area without any concerns, I think it would be a terrible message for this committee not to reassure. And reassurance is very important because there is evidence supporting for and against on both sides and as Cllr Duffy says there is no 100% certainty about this.

"As for the issue of red meat, a mother can make the decision not to feed their child red meat and I think on that same basis they should have the comfort of knowing that their child is not playing in a Congleton Town Council play area that has got glyphosate in or around the fencing."

The meeting was told that the Streetscape team had already stopped using the chemical around children's play areas and were instead manually removing the weeds, but Cllr Douglas' proposal was reaffirming that the chemical wouldn't be reintroduced.

The committee formally confirmed the verbal commitment made by officers that glyphosate will not be used in children's play areas and the fencing aras which surround them.