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Environment

06th Apr 2022

Council branded ‘bonkers’ for removing daffodils in case kids eat them

Kieran Galpin

SWNS

‘Probably best everyone just stays indoors from now on then’

A council has been branded “bonkers” after weeding out daffodils over worries that kids may eat them and get diarrhoea.

Residents of St Blaise in Cornwall were left bewildered after the local council removed over 1,000 daffodils from an area of Old Roselyon Play Area known locally as Daffodil Walk.

St Blaise council say the flowers can be “poisonous”, with experts warning that consuming them can cause diarrhoea. The council has also confirmed it won’t plant new daffodil bulbs for the foreseeable future.

The decision was made after a recent play park inspection that saw the inspector recommend the removal of the springtime plant.

“I brought this to the attention of the town council who said no more daffs should be planted but those that were there before the land was devolved to us would stay,” a council spokesperson said. “The daffs are sporadic over a grassed area and once the flowers have died the grass will be cut.”

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A spokesperson for Roselyon Play Park Committee said the “preposterous” decision is “totally bonkers” and that “most of them have now been cut down.”

A spokesperson from South West Health Protection Unit confirmed that daffodils are toxic and “severe vomiting and diarrhoea can occur if eaten by mistake”. Although very unpleasant, those poisoned would expect to make a full recovery “without treatment”, the spokesperson said.

“When I was in primary school every year we were given a daffodil bulb to grow, we got certificates for the best,” one local wrote online. “Funny I don’t remember trying to eat them or anyone being poisoned.”

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Another sarcastically wrote: “Probably best everyone just stays indoors from now on then, with mittens on to stop them trying to pick any potential poisonous objects up.”

“This is the most ridiculous actions from a town council I’ve ever heard of,” another local scathed. “Let’s get rid of all the bees and wasps, let’s make sure no one ever gets stung by a stinging nettle, let’s cut down all trees.”

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