Victory in seven-year pesticide fight

The Environmental campaigner Georgina Downs achieved a landmark victory yesterday in her seven-year battle against pesticides.

A High Court judge ruled that the Government had failed to comply with its obligations under a European directive to protect rural residents and communities from possible harmful exposure to toxic chemicals during crop spraying. Mr Justice Collins, sitting in London, said Hilary Benn, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, had to rethink the way crop spraying was controlled and regulated and reassess its health risks.

After the ruling, Miss Downs said that the Government "should now just admit that it got it wrong, apologise and actually get on with protecting the health and citizens of this country". Allowing Miss Downs's application for judicial review, the judge said she had produced "solid evidence" that residents had suffered harm and she had raised doubts about the safety of pesticides under the current regime.

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Miss Downs, who lives on the edge of a farm near Chichester, West Sussex, was first exposed to pesticide spraying at age 11. She has suffered "flu-like symptoms, sore throat, blistering and other problems".