Sunderland City Council to review use of chemical weed killers

Leaders are to consider a review of Sunderland City Council's biodiversity programme and its use of herbicide glyphosate.

The council's ruling cabinet is studying the review at its meeting on Thursday 20 June.

The review followed a Notice of Motion at a council meeting in March 2021 calling for the council to eliminate the use of chemical herbicides to help encourage bio-diversity.

Glyphosate is a widely used herbicide and the primary active ingredient in numerous herbicides authorised by the UK government. Other councils across the UK have been reviewing their use of herbicides with glyphosate.

Cabinet is considering a recommendation that the council continues using glyphosate so weeds on roads and footpaths can be controlled and invasive species such as Japanese knotweed are still tackled.

The council is also continuing to look at alternatives and has reduced glyphosate use. In the last three years, use on council land has fallen by nearly half (48 per cent) from 925 to 480 litres.

The report to cabinet - Cabinet report - promoting bio-diversity and effective weed management - outlines how large city landowners are continuing to use glyphosate, plus neighbouring authorities.

The council's Director of Environment, Marc Morley said: "As set out in the Cabinet report, we have looked at alternatives, used the alternatives, studied their use, and continue to look at them.

"There is no weed control product or method available on the market currently that is as effective at controlling weeds as a herbicide with a glyphosate solution. All alternative methods have been found to be significantly more expensive, less effective at controlling weed growth and have a greater environmental and ecological impact on the city."

The cabinet report outlines how over the last three years the council has looked at alternatives. These included no weed control, which was unpopular with residents and also created health, safety and maintenance issues on public highways. Other alternative treatment methods and more strimming work were also studied.

The Redhill and Barnes areas were among 12 trial areas where acetic and hot foam sprays on weeds proved to be less effective - hot foam treatments for example were more than twenty times more expensive.

Mr Morley added: "Alternative methods used had little effect – strimmed weeds grew back quickly and required significant resource to manage effectively. This is because strimming like acetic acid and hot foam can only tackle weed growth above ground level. Weed growth below the surface continues and the weed quickly regenerates, unlike when treated with glyphosate which kills the entire weed from root to tip.

"The majority of residents in the trial areas did not like the results where we either did no weed control or used alternatives to herbicides with glyphosate. In speaking to other councils, the unanimous feedback from almost 100 local authorities was that there is no comparable alternative to glyphosate in relation to cost and time. Those local authorities that did cease use of glyphosate have mostly reinstated its use or it's under review."

In line with the original motion, the council has created more wildflower areas, is a partner in the North East Community Forest where more than 60,000 trees have been planted, developed a programme for local community orchards and gardens, and created an innovative programme of bus shelter roof flower gardens. These are all contributing to extra habitat for pollinators and other wildlife as part of the commitment to bio-diversity.

Cabinet meets from ​10am at City Hall on Thursday, June 20. The meeting is open to the public.