Dear Cllr Stephanos Ioannou,
Thank you for your report of weeds on Hillside Grove Southgate N14. Street Cleansing are responsible for weed removal from all hard surfaces and pavements on the public highway. We as an authority use a glyphosate-based weedkillers in the form of premixed chemicals distributed by electronic Controlled Droplet Applicators (CDA?s) which allow accuracy of coverage. The chemical does require a growing leaf to work and is rapidly inactivated on reaching the soil ensuring it does not contaminate nearby planting, or grassed areas. This type of chemical is only used as a spot spray on growing weeds, which means any new germinating weed will continue to grow in the same area and because of this there is a need to spray the whole of the public highway network on a continually rotating basis throughout the season.
All roads and footpaths will generally get 3 or sometimes 4 sprays per annum, dependant on the weather. Weeds will generally take 2 ? 3 weeks to die off and once dead should be removed by the cleansing team. The use of chemicals has been fully risk assessed with the pre-mixed glyphosate mix being introduced as the safest option, as it negates the need to manually mix chemicals whilst on the public highway. The use of this type of chemical and its application has been used by the authority since 2011
Hillside Grove was last sprayed on 07/06/2023, we have now weed sprayed Hillside Grove on 13/09/2023. I will ask the Senior Chargehand for the area to ensure the weeds are removed by the cleansing team as soon as they die off.