The impacts of the Sustainable Use Directive for amenity users of pesticides will be addressed in a Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD — formerly the Pesticides Safety Directorate) consultation to launch on 1 November.

It will coincide with a consultation event being held by the Amenity Forum on 4 November at Nottingham's Trent Bridge Ground.

Amenity Forum chairman John Moverley told HW there were major concerns about what the legislation — passed by the European Parliament in January — would mean.

"There is a general misunderstanding about the implications of not spraying and we have got to make sure we keep hammering it in," he urged. "The big message to the amenity sector is that we have got to start talking up the game and demonstrating that we care."

The Amenity Forum's event will be a chance for pesticides users to quiz CRD policy adviser Grant Stark and the Environment Agency's pesticides policy adviser Jo Kennedy.

"It is no good simply saying we can't use integrated control; we have got to get people to understand if they don't do something then there's more likelihood of compulsory action," Moverley added.

The potential for integrated vegetation management plans (IVMPs) must be grasped by the sector, explained Moverley. IVMPs will question every use of pesticides and whether alternatives exist.

Complete Weed Control managing director Ian Graham urged those involved with pesticides to think carefully about how to address their use during a seminar at IOG SALTEX.

"It is very bad news for chemical manufacturers, but as contractors we have the opportunity to set out new methods of solving old problems," he said. "At the moment we still have enough chemicals to do what we have to do at a reasonable cost. But if we lose them, the alternatives are hugely expensive.

"If we don't consider IVMPs and display a degree of responsibility as an industry in seeking to maximise effectiveness, then it would be reasonable for someone to say the only way to control the use is to stop it."

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