Ministers seek import ban to avert threat to sweet chestnut trees

Ministers are consulting on plans to ban the import of sweet chestnuts from areas such as France where trees are suffering from sweet chestnut blight, which can kill the trees.

The announcement was made as the independent task force set up to look at tree and plant health in the wake of the emergence of Chalara ash dieback in the UK delivered its final recommendations. They include tighter rules on bringing plants into the UK, such as strengthening the system of plant passports and stopping imports of plants from outside Europe for personal use.

The task force has also recommended a plant health risk register which would identify possible diseases so the UK could take steps to prevent them arriving in the country. The Government is going ahead with the register.

Officials hope the sweet chestnut ban, which would be brought in before the next planting season in the autumn, could stop a repeat of ash dieback.

Ash dieback, which can kill ash trees, is thought to have arrived on wind-blown spores and on imported saplings and has raised concerns about the future of one of countryside’s most common trees.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson announced proposals for the sweet chestnut import ban at the “stop the spread” garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, commissioned by the Food and Environment Research Agency.

He said the ban would mean the UK was ahead of the disease, unlike ash dieback which was already in the country when an import and movement ban was introduced.