Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Wellbeing invited the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider and comment on the report following the interest expressed by Members in scrutinising the Council’s use of Glyphosate. She said that the use of Glyphosate had been a topic of debate for some years now, and this debate had been informed by chemical suppliers and the agriculture industry against a background of environmental groups raising concerns about its safety.

The Executive Member summarised the pros and cons of using Glyphosate. She said that the council previously explored the use of Glyphosate through a scrutiny process to tender the current grounds maintenance contract.

The Executive Member said that the new administration had expressed concerns and raised new questions. The scrutiny proposal form was submitted in September asking about alternatives and how this herbicide was currently used by the ground’s maintenance contractors.

The Executive Member said that the proposal recognised that some local authorities had found in favour of Glyphosate and others were against, and that some had reversed their policies. The proposal had emphasised that this was a topic of public interest and had asked for a greater depth of detail than what had been included in the previous summary bulletin circulated in May.

The Executive Member said that the report provided answers to the questions in the scrutiny proposal form and summarised why and how the council was currently using Glyphosate, offering reassurances about how this use was controlled. The report also explored how the council might choose a way forward taking into consideration the complexity of the debate, advice from our current contractors and the pragmatic issue of cost.

Councillor Buckmaster said that one or two boroughs in Hertfordshire had resolved not to use Glyphosate, but a vast number of councils in Hertfordshire did use Glyphosate on the basis that this substance was the most viable and effective method of control compared to other substances. He said that he believed using Glyphosate was the way forward for the foreseeable future, until a more viable cost effective and effective solution was introduced for treating weeds.

Councillor Carter said that Members needed to consider the use of Glyphosate not just from the point of view of financial cost. She referred to the ecological and biodiversity emergency declared by the council in July and commented on the findings of the 2023 state of nature report which had documented the fall in insect numbers, particularly pollinators on which humans were dependent for food suppliers.

Councillor Carter said that doing nothing was not really viable going forward due to the biodiversity emergency. She said that the increase in the use of pesticides and herbicides was about 20-fold since the 1980s, and there were different methods of controlling weeds. She acknowledged that it was a difficult problem to solve as councils had become dependent on these herbicides to manage the public expectation of no roadside vegetation.

Councillor Carter asked if the council blanket sprayed roadsides or whether spraying was limited to areas  ...  view the full minutes text for item 225