Country Land and Business Association's Nonsense on Ragwort

The Country Land and Business Association has just put some real nonsense about ragwort  on their website. They start with this:-

Following the early hot weather and heavy rain in April ragwort is rife this year.

I wrote about this odd claim that ragwort is increasing because of the weather- any weather before. Last year Horse and Hound claimed :-

Cold weather in November and December, followed by a mild January have caused the deadly weed ragwort to start to grow early.

The actual facts are that the latest government survey shows that ragwort is DECREASING. There is in any case nothing in the scientific literature which I have seen that would support either claim about the weather affecting ragwort. What is actually happening is more notice is being paid to theamount of ragwort, because of the hysteria.

However some really ignorant  nonsense from the CLA follows.

The Council does not have responsibility for dealing with ragwort on private land. As a result members are reminded that as Ragwort is a notifiable weed it is the responsibility of the landowner to remove it from private land.

There is no such thing in UK law as a "notifiable weed." The CLA have got it badly wrong and are misinforming their members. There is no automatic legal responsibility to remove ragwort from private land.

They should remember too that there is no evidence that ragwort is a serious risk to livestock. The inflated figures for horses have been conclusively shown to be WRONG.

This link will give you the law.