Many local residents have been in touch about their concerns for the re-introduction of bee killing pesticides to England’s agricultural landscape.

Neonicotinoid pesticides were banned across the EU in 2018 due to their harmful impact on bees and pollinators, and the UK Government previously committed to maintaining these restrictions after Brexit. That being the case, many people were dismayed at the Government’s recent announcement authorising the use of neonicotinoids to treat sugar beet in England.

The Government’s U-turn is extremely worrying, with the UK’s bee population already in a precarious situation; a third of the UK's bee population has disappeared in just a decade, yet bees pollinate three quarters of our crops.

Having raised my concerns with Labour colleague, Luke Pollard MP, Shadow Secretary of State for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, I am pleased that he has written to the Government on this issue.