One of the first councils in Britain to ban weedkiller has dropped the strategy after streets and footpaths became choked with weeds.
Brighton and Hove was branded a “city of triffids” after the council imposed a ban on the use of glyphosate – the active ingredient in most weedkillers – in 2019.
Weeds standing up to five feet tall blocked pathways, trailed across streets and snaked up lamp posts.
Now, after five years of complaints, the council has admitted the situation had become untenable and has voted to reintroduce glyphosate.
5 years might make them a little slow but they have actually learnt and thus changed couree. Congratulations on that at least. Rare political behaviour after all….. even if this does still leave rather a lot of green policies in conflict with reality.
‘In 2022 the council blamed Brexit for the infestation saying they were having difficulty recruiting staff and ordering equipment’
I like it!!
Boganboy, so, there were no local workers who wanted a job in the Green paradise? Gosh…
The way to cure an area of Green policies is to give them what they say they want, good and hard 🙂
Oh ! Won’t someone think of the bees !
Cambridge is doing the same. Stopped spraying and said council workmen would turn up and physically clear anything that got to be a problem, it’s going to save us £120k. Actually extra cost of workmen going out on demand £101k, plus very pissed off people with access problems due to weeds. Back to spraying this year.
Maybe something to do with the council going to Labour in 2023. Lesser of two weevils.
@Arthur in Council-speak Roundup means to the next million.
I like the weeds, the post-apocalypso shithole vibe is so on trend this season.
Chris – aye, I think the first thing the incoming Labour administration noticed was the level of parking charges. May be they’ll get around to the 20mph limits and then sort the bins out.
I don’t think it’s a case of the councillors having learnt from their error. It’s more a case of the voters having learnt the error of electing those councillors who instituted the policy and replacing them with new ones.
The ex-councillors still appear to believe in the weedkiller ban. I’m tempted to sign the petition calling for the ban to remain in place, just for a laugh. The years I lived in Brighton in the 80s were some of the happiest of my life, but the sort of people who live there now deserve to experience all the misery which environmentalism has to offer, just so they might think twice before voting to inflict it nationally.
My guess of either just had elections or elections coming up and councillors want to keep their jobs has been answered by Paul and Chris, thanks.
Although I like Paul’s idea, using them as an example we can point to if our own councillors get tempted to do something equally stupid.
It went wrong when they banned sodium chlorate. Roundup and its ilk do nothing in comparison to it!
Especially when mixed with sugar!