Content

10.1

Members of the committee
considered a report of the Executive Director Neighbourhood
Services marking 5 years of endeavours to reduce Glyphosate use in
Highway areas across the city detailing the measures taken to date
to reduce usage, issues encountered and recommended next steps to
be taken in this latest iteration of the strategy with an overall
objective to reduce the overall quantities of Glyphosate used year
on year moving forward to 2030.

 

 

10.2

RESOLVED: That the Environmental
Services and Regulation Policy Committee extend the Council’s
Glyphosate reduction trials until December 2026, reintroduce a
maintenance regime around obstacles and continuing to engage with
the market for alternative products.

 

 

10.3

Reasons for Decision

 

 

10.3.1

Option 3 in Section 2 above reflects an
overall ethos of appropriate and proportionate, well planned and
well supervised preventative maintenance practices. Including
pesticide free measures such as additional street sweeping and
appropriate use of complementary alternative products that are
pivotal in striking the balance between the aesthetic expectations
of citizens, maintaining the walkability and active travel
aspirations of the Authority within Communities and reducing the
need for reactive spraying of Glyphosate.

 

 

10.4

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

 

 

10.4.1

Alternative Option 1: Manual Strimming of
Obstacles
 
The reintroduction of maintenance regimes
around obstacles is discussed in Option 4 above. One approach
considered was the manual strimming around obstacles as a means of
weed management. There are approximately 60,000 obstacles in
Herbage B (Standard residential / suburban grass) highway verges
across the city. Obstacles refers to items of street furniture such
as signposts, litter bins, street lighting columns and trees. Based
on a work output assumption of each obstacle requiring strimming
around every 6 weeks, additional resource costs would be incurred
which will have a significant impact on the council.