Memmelsdorf bans glyphosate use
The memmelsdorfer jesters already took the town hall’s excluder from the first mayor gerd schneider weeks ago. Now the municipal parliament experienced a second, a completely different town hall storm: around 50 memmelsdorf citizens crowded into the town hall hall hall at the youngest municipal council meeting to watch intently as the body took a stand on a citizens’ motion to ban the weedkiller glyphosate on municipally owned land.
"The citizens’ petition anchored in the bavarian municipal code is an original democratic instrument for political participation", said gerd schneider in front of the council and the assembled burghers. With this introduction, the head of the town hall also proved that he, his administration and the council as a whole are serious about citizen participation, even if such participation also means further efforts for the administration.
Six times as many signatures
One percent of the citizens of memmelsdorf were required for the council to vote on the proposal. These are 90 signatures. More than six times as many, namely 566 signatures, were submitted by the representatives of the citizen proposal. That speaks volumes about the urgency of the matter, schneider added, before leaving the podium to ina greb, christian vogt and carina abich.
Greb and vogt presented their arguments in a factual, cautious and constructive manner, and it was hoped that one or the other of the council members would take this style as an example. The majority of the council then did so, only the CSU faction broke away. Jurgen reinwald wanted to see an imbalance in the applicants’ presentation, because no representatives of agriculture had had a chance to speak.
It is true that no representative of the farmers was present, and reinwald raised arguments that he had already put forward in spring 2018, when the council rejected a motion to dispense with the pesticide with the votes of the CSU faction. This also at that time already with the reason, it was scientifically nothing proven and one must first clear, how the farmers got a compensation for the economic damage.
Symbolic value and other benefits
Mayor schneider pointed out that just two percent, namely 26 hectares, were affected by a ban. But the signal effect should not be underestimated. In addition, it was surprisingly possible to earn a higher rent for those areas that could no longer be treated with poisons of any kind. Even reinwald was unable to explain how this could be reconciled with the economic losses suffered by the affected farmers. And yet the CSU parliamentary group initially hid behind reinwald’s statement that they would not approve the burger application until further expert opinions had been provided.
When this delaying tactic was finally uncovered by the representatives of the other city hall factions, however, a leaked CSU faction joined the majority decision without a dissenting vote. The use of pesticides is therefore prohibited on municipal land in the future. The whole memmelsdorf council was able to take credit for the sustained applause of the citizens for this groundbreaking decision, because after a tough struggle, they finally came to a joint result that is worthy of all honors.
Other topics
The other items on the agenda passed the board without any major discussions. Thus a part of the wiesenfeld path in meedensdorf is being restored in accordance with the decision of the building committee. The purchase of barriers for the various events of the local cultural association is subsidized, a request of the tennis club memmelsdorf, the municipality may continue to waive its repurchase right for properties, if the merger of the TC with the SC memmelsdorf has taken place, was granted. Eventually, the memmelsdorf fire department was granted a further accommodation for its emergency vehicles.
