Dear Councillor Ioannou
Thank you for raising concerns about the weed growth in Hillside Grove, Southgate
Street Cleansing are responsible for weed removal from all hard surfaces and pavements on the public highway, but not verges or planted areas.
We as an authority use a glyphosate based weedkillers in the form of pre mixed chemicals distributed by electronic Controlled Droplet Applicators (CDA’s) which allow accuracy of coverage.
The chemical does require a growing leaf in order 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. We will be starting our annual spray programme next week (commencing Monday 14th March) and I will ask for this area to be included early in the programme
Weeds will take approximately 2 – 3 weeks to die off and once dead should be removed by the cleansing team
Yours sincerely