Congleton town councillors are to consider formally banning 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 will propose that members of tonight's virtual community and environment committee formally agree this verbal commitment.

In a report to the committee Cllr Douglas states: "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'.

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