Wasp program cuts sting councils

State Government cuts to a program which helps keep WA free from the European wasp have angered Kwinana and Rockingham councils.

Kwinana Mayor Carol Adams said the European wasp had been declared a public health pest and the council wanted funding for the Department of Agriculture and Food program to continue.

Cr Adams and Rockingham Mayor Barry Sammels said they were writing to Food and Agriculture Minister Terry Redman and the department asking for the program to continue.

They said if the department stopped funding the nest removal and destruction components of its European wasp program and transferred responsibility for this to local governments, they would face increased costs and not have the resources to carry out the program effectively.

‘‘We would be worried not only (about) the cost, but also our ability to offer as good a service as the department has been providing, given our limited resources when compared to larger government organisations such as the department,’’ Cr Adams said.

Cr Sammels said if the wasps did get established in the area it would have significant cost implications for the council’s health services department when i t came to identifying and destroying nests, and undertaking community education programs.

WA Local Government Association president Troy Pickard said during the past 32 years the program had operated successfully because the department had a trapping program at high-risk interstate transport points of entry, and promptly removed nests reported to its pest and disease freecall information service.