Westland mayor Maureen Pugh says the district council will have no choice but to support a ban on the use of 1080 poison to kill possums, following a local petition and march.
The march was organised by Westland residents who collected more than 1800 signatures on a petition calling for the council to support a 1080 ban.
Ms Pugh says the council will have to do as its residents want, given that 92% of those who signed the petition favoured a ban.
She says she was overwhelmed to see so many people marching through Hokitika on Friday protesting against the use of 1080. About 200 people marched along the town's main street to the council building, where they presented the petition to the mayor.
Aimed at keeping TB from spreading
The marchers, carrying banners and wearing costumes, came from all over the council's catchment, over which a $4.7 million 1080 drop is about to begin.
The drop, managed by the Animal Heath Board, is aimed at keeping tuberculosis from spreading in the region via possums. The protesters say, however, that the poisoning method is outdated and unsafe.
March organiser Mike Keenan says that although the council itself has no power to ban 1080, the residents want it to advocate strongly to the Government on their behalf.
TB Free West Coast says 1080 is still the best available means of controlling possums and tuberculosis and the future of the region's dairy industry depends on it.
