Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided details of a referral from the Regeneration, Culture and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee with regards to the Member’s item that was considered by the Committee on 5 December 2019. This report reviewed the use of herbicides on green space assets and alternatives that were available.

The Committee agreed to recommend to Cabinet that:

a)    due to conflicting opinion, glyphosate no longer be used in children’s play areas.

b)    as the current product has been deemed safe to use by independent scientific experts working for the EU and UK Government, the service continue the adopted practice on all other green space assets.

c)    the service continue to review usage of glyphosate herbicides in greenspace / public areas within legislation guidelines.

d)    that for a period of one year, an uncut area of approximately 3ft be left untreated around the base of trees in public parks, with one cut during the season.

The report provided details of the various options available for Cabinet’s consideration.

Reasons:

Glyphosate is currently considered to be a safe method of chemical weed control. However, an integrated approach using non-biochemical products would also be effective and would reduce the use of glyphosate. Leaving an area uncut would minimise visible spray lines around assets.