I WAS deeply disturbed to hear that the Government is going to allow the use of bee killing neonicotinoid pesticides on oilseed rape.

When I attended the Bee Summit held in Oxford in 2014, it was clear that there was ample scientific evidence that these pesticides are a threat to our declining bee species, alongside other forms of agricultural activities that threaten bees.

Oxfordshire has experienced a 60 per cent decline in bee colonies over the past 10 years and this is a threat to our food supply as bees provide over 80 per cent of our crop pollination.

The Green Party forwarded a motion to the county council in 2014 calling on the then Secretary of State for the Environment to extend his moratorium on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides to an outright ban.

Oxfordshire County Council supported this motion.

I have designed my garden to have a lot of nectar-rich flowering plants as well as to grow food.

This has resulted in a substantial year-on-year increase in bees, including those making use of this Great Mullein.

Are my efforts to be in vain? Is the irresponsibility of the Government to bring about the Silent Spring that author Rachel Carson warned us all about back in 1962?

I have written to Nicola Blackwood MP as she is chairman of the science and technology committee of the House of Commons.

I am urging her to present the Government with the irrefutable scientific evidence that their actions are a threat to our bees and that their decision must be reversed immediately.

Dr HAZEL DAWE
Treasurer, Oxfordshire Green Party 
Bulan Road, Oxford