WEEDKILLER SOLUTION MULLED AS INVASIVE BRAMBLE RUNS RIOT ON CLEETHORPES DUNES

Bramble - on the rampage

CHEMICAL poison may be used to kill an unwelcome invasion of bramble on Cleethorpes dunes. 

The thorny plant has taken a grip after a 'dynamic dunes' plant-management scheme seems to have gone awry.

Over winter, contractors working for North East Lincolnshire Council and Natural England cleared huge swathes of a specialist native shrub, sea buckthorn.

Although it is an attractive plant with beautiful orange-red berries that provide a winter food source for birds, buckthorn crowds out many  dunes-specialising flowers.

It was hoped the clearance project would free up land for more orchids and others species.

Instead, the  bramble - and copious thistle plants - have moved in with a vengeance, ironically creating a more hostile environment for the orchids than the buckthorn they have replaced.

In a wide-ranging talk - full of fascinating insights - on the wildflowers of the dunes, expert Mick Binnion conceded the proliferation of the bramble and thistle has been "a negative".

He told a weekend conference in Cleethorpes Library that authorities were considering  the selective application of chemical weedkiller as a solution.

Sea buckthorn - much of it was hacked down over winter