Community gardeners – and the bees that they rely on for pollination – face a new threat from the return of glyphosate weedkiller to Brighton and Hove’s streets, a residents’ representative told councillors.
Hollingdean Residents’ Association secretary Ian Beck said that Brighton and Hove City Council should have consulted residents about bringing back the weedkiller.
He spoke out at a council housing management panel meeting where council tenants and leaseholders discuss issues with councillors and officials.
Mr Beck told the meeting on Tuesday (11 June) that, as a cancer survivor, he was concerned about the chemical – sold commercially as Roundup – and its effect on bees and other wildlife.
Councillors voted to restart using the controversial herbicide earlier this year after almost five years of unmanaged weed growth which attracted public complaints, unfavourable media coverage and critical comments on social media.
The council said that it would use a “controlled droplet” method, using less glyphosate than conventional spraying in a way that was more focused.
The weedkiller is suspended in a non-toxic oil solution and sticks to target plants, producing no breathable droplets.
So far workers have treated 140 streets in Portslade and are working on Hove in the first phase.
Mr Beck said: “Up in Hollingdean we have a really good group trying to make the estate better called Growing Hollingdean. They’ve got their own bee hives to attract the bee population to pollinate the trees.
“These glyphosates don’t care what’s killed and the bee population is disappearing rapidly.
“This is an issue where residents should have been consulted. Bringing back glyphosates is one of the biggest issues this year.
“People like me who have had cancer, we don’t know if they are carcinogenic. We don’t know what wildlife it’s killing. We don’t know if the bee population will survive.
“No one was consulted. It suddenly went through in the council chamber. That’s not democratic. This is the sort of thing Putin would have done in Russia – ‘we’ll do what we want’.”
Hollingdean and Fiveways ward councillor Theresa Fowler said that the policy would be reviewed in a year.
Councillor Fowler said: “The council tried to do their best to manually remove weeds but it just didn’t work.
“We haven’t been using glyphosate since 2019. We had covid and Brexit and couldn’t get the staff to do with work and the weeds have got out of control in some areas.
“The council has a responsibility to make the pavement safe. I have an email from someone today saying they can’t get around the roads and they’re frightened of falling.”
The council bought a weed ripper but found it ripped up the pavement and boards had to be put up to protect parked cars.
Councillor Fowler said that other councils such as Lewes and Worthing were still using a mist spray of glyphosate rather than the controlled drop method.
An opt-out system is being worked out for areas where the community does not want glyphosate used on weeds.
She added: “I’ve spent an afternoon in my road clearing weeds with residents. If your road doesn’t have any weeds, there won’t be treatment. That’s the best way.”
The council does not plan to use the solution in the busy centre where weeds are kept down by the number of people walking there.
Councillor Fowler said that streets in Hanover and Elm Grove were not being sprayed for the same reason and that residents there had cleared weeds themselves.
How is this suddenly a problem when weedkiller was used in the past?
It should only be used on roads and paths for health and safety reasons, ie to prevent trips and falls.
There is no reason to use it on flowers and plants. Have people no common sense any more?
Not if the previous Labour council banned weedkiller without an effective natural alternative ready to roll out across our city.
I’m sorry until a solution that actually works is found and implemented glyphosate in this droplet method is the best way forward.
If you don’t want the weed killer droplets used on yoru street then pull your finger out and pull up the weeds!
If there aren’t any weeds when they come round there;s no need to use the weed killer!
This really isn’t that hard.
As a gardener, I spend a lot of time weeding.
I’m going to comment on this because the opening line really annoyed me.
Here it is:
“Community gardeners – and the bees that they rely on for pollination – face a new threat from the return of glyphosate weedkiller to Brighton and Hove’s streets, a residents’ representative told councillors.”
This a prime example of a statement from someone who has watched maybe two David Attenborough programmes on the BBC and they now think they are some Green Eco-Warrior. In truth, you/we need to understand how nature works, and to separate that from joining a politically-motivated or religious fan club.
For sure, we humans need to join emotional support gangs, surrounding ourselves with self-congratulatory fantasy, just like this. Green ideology is indeed cute and attractive, and I try to live by that. But don’t lose your ability to think critically or to be pragmatic.
If you live in Hanover, as I have for thirty years, then you might remember the recent Greens’ idea of the Hanover LTN, which, under scrutiny, was not actually green at all – by any single measurement of that concept. So often nowadays, we see that a group membership results in evangelical fixed views, and those views then take over from the original good intentions.
And so it is here, with some people now doubling down against good housekeeping and proper road management.
If you don’t want weed killer, then get off your arse and organise some manual weed clearing – as I did outside my own house last weekend.
Bees are indeed under threat, but that does not mean we can’t now weed our own streets. (If I do the washing up at home, that doesn’t mean the dirt or bacteria in my sink is ‘under threat’.)
We humans live alongside nature every day, and us creating a clean and tidy home does not put the rest of nature under threat.
If you want to encourage bees and other pollinators, then take a positive step, and plant your garden or balcony with lavender and other insect-attracting plants. Don’t use the way nature works to excuse yourself of basic housekeeping, or as a reason to start shouting at others.
Every animal colonises its chosen space in nature, and the main threat to bees right now is the Asian Hornet – not me weeding outside my front door, or some farmer fertilising his field to grow a crop to sell.
The roads we have here in Hove (where I now live) need weeding manually, or else realistically they need a weedkiller spraying in the gutters – before our drains get blocked again.
Either way, that simple act of housekeeping will not affect the local bee population.
I grow vegetables at my allotment and we are all mostly organic at our site. There’s no way we’d use any weedkiller up there. My own soil is pretty good, after all the composting I have done, and the annual manuring, over our chalk-based hills.
But the grimy roads and kerbs across the city residential suburbs are different. If you don’t weed the pavements, or spray some weedkiller, then the growing roots beneath the paving slabs or tarmac rise up, to create a much bigger, long term problem. We do need to get real on this.
Excellent comment 👍
Common sense comment of the week award goes to you.
There is this whole ideology nonsense where green party members come out with claptrap ciggy packet maths ideas. which sounds good in principle but actually under any form of scrutiny is the least environmentally friendly option then backed up by sheep who cannot think for them selves.
Ban week killer, and not employ additional staff at city clean, great. Except for the amount of carbon which will be released by having to replace pavements and roads 3 times over due to root damage.
Hanover LTN, great less cars driving through Hanover. Oh except everyone with a car who lives there will be driving 1 mile additional up hill (more pollution) and no one actually drives through there as a short cut in the first place…
Removing the railings on 7 dials and making it more pedestrian friendly. Yes looks much nicer except there has been multiple deaths as a result of people crossing where there use to be barriers.
Unfortunately, Mr Beck’s concerns are not founded in evidence, as the possible carcinogen is mainly in industrial usage of the chemical, something that is further mitigated through the droplet method. In fact, we do know quite a bit about what it kills.
Regarding its effect on bees, I must admit it is something I have not read up on. Assumingly though, the bee would be unlikely to interact with the weed treated?
We are told that weeds on pavements are a health and safety risk, yet the Council’s recent mowing of the verges in my area has spread wet grass cuttings all over the pavements, which are now slippery and far more hazardous that a bit of moss growing between the slabs.
I don’t support the Greens, but it seems to me that the new Labour administration are making a right hash of this. In trying to mitigate the effects of weed growth they are making things much, much worse, both for pedestrians and nature.
They don’t seem to have a clue, and have even mowed a prominent meadow here down to the ground, even though it was just ready to start flowering and has a special board on it explaining what all the different flowers and butterflies are called! Absolutely hopeless.
Your solution is? Or is it just a rant about nothing lol. Maybe if you and your neighbours moad the verges yourselves you’d make a better job of it than the guy on min wage and not much qualifications. Just a thought…
Don’t eat the weeds that have been strayed and I’m sure you will be absolutely fine as there is currently zero research that would suggest that this weed killer is even remotely dangerous, indeed the council are not even spraying it anymore, just dripping it on to weeds in the curbs.
So again, don’t eat the weeds on the pavement, and don’t drink the water in the gutter, maybe get some hobbies and move on with your life …