Agenda item

11.1

As per section 10.2, subsection 3 of the decision taken by the Waste and Street Scene Committee on 27th September 2023, it was resolved unanimously that a report should be brought back to the Committee in February 2024 setting out next steps for the Authority in phasing out the use of Glyphosate in highway areas.

11.2

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Waste and Street Scene Policy Committee:

1.     approves the continuation of the city-wide reduction in the use of Glyphosate as was agreed unanimously on 27th September 2023;

2.     agrees that officers supplement efforts to reduce the use of Glyphosate by carrying out limited operational trials of the FoamStream system during 2024;

3.     agrees that officers use the FoamStream trials as the basis to calculate both cost and environmental implications of the system and present this to Committee in December 2025;

4.     retains the option, in December 2025, to instruct the commencement of a further three-year trial of maintaining trial areas of the highway using alternative measures which are Glyphosate free from 1st January 2026 to 1st January 2029;

5.     agrees that, if the legislative position on Glyphosate changes in the intervening period, officers commit to return to Committee within 3 months of any legislative change announcement with a revised position for the Committee to consider; and

6.     agrees that, regardless of the legislative position, officers will return to Committee by December 2025 to advise on the total usage of Glyphosate products throughout the current trial of reduction measures, alongside detailed cost implications to enable the Committee to decide whether they wish to progress to the next phase of trials.

11.3

Reasons for Decision

11.3.1

Approval of the recommendations will allow:

·       A continuing reduction in the use of glyphosate in highway areas across all of Sheffield.

·       Establishing better baseline data around longer-term impacts of cessation.

11.4

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

11.4.1

The option to ‘do nothing’ was considered and discounted considering both the declaration of a Nature Emergency and the support received for the petition against the use of Glyphosate.

11.4.2

The option to cease the use of Glyphosate on all land immediately was considered but discounted due to high level of cost/expenditure. Sheffield has 1,064,045.03 square metres of high usage footways and 8,77,757.67 square metres of lower use footways in the city.

Based on a “worst case scenario” of around 10% of the footway network failing between 2023 and 2037 due to weeds and vegetation this is estimated to cover around £116 million pounds in resurfacing.

Additional Street Cleansing Costs have also been modelled based on 42 additional operatives, additional road sweepers, and other vehicles, and plant machinery being brought into the operation to uplift street cleansing service to manually remove weeds has also been costed at around £2.4 million per year – circa £32 million over the remainder of the PFI contract.

Therefore, the total potential cost implication of complete cessation in a worst-case scenario could be as high as £150 million of additional expenditure. This may however be mitigated should there be a legislative change.

11.1

The Assistant Director – Highways presented a report that provided an update on the previous trials relating to reducing the use of Glyphosate and the outcomes of those trials. The report set out options and recommended actions for phasing out the use of Glyphosate in highway areas.

11.2

Officers agreed to provide further information on the outcomes from the trials of the FoamStream system by other authorities and whether the Council had designed its own trial differently, taking into account the findings from the other authorities.

11.3

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Waste and Street Scene Policy Committee:

1.     approves the continuation of the city-wide reduction in the use of Glyphosate as was agreed unanimously on 27th September 2023;

2.     agrees that officers supplement efforts to reduce the use of Glyphosate by carrying out limited operational trials of the FoamStream system during 2024;

3.     agrees that officers use the FoamStream trials as the basis to calculate both cost and environmental implications of the system and present this to Committee in December 2025;

4.     retains the option, in December 2025, to instruct the commencement of a further three-year trial of maintaining trial areas of the highway using alternative measures which are Glyphosate free from 1st January 2026 to 1st January 2029;

5.     agrees that, if the legislative position on Glyphosate changes in the intervening period, officers commit to return to Committee within 3 months of any legislative change announcement with a revised position for the Committee to consider; and

6.     agrees that, regardless of the legislative position, officers will return to Committee by December 2025 to advise on the total usage of Glyphosate products throughout the current trial of reduction measures, alongside detailed cost implications to enable the Committee to decide whether they wish to progress to the next phase of trials.

11.4

Reasons for Decision

11.4.1

Approval of the recommendations will allow:

·       A continuing reduction in the use of glyphosate in highway areas across all of Sheffield.

·       Establishing better baseline data around longer-term impacts of cessation.

11.5

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

11.5.1

The option to ‘do nothing’ was considered and discounted considering both the declaration of a Nature Emergency and the support received for the petition against the use of Glyphosate.

11.5.2

The option to cease the use of Glyphosate on all land immediately was considered but discounted due to high level of cost/expenditure. Sheffield has 1,064,045.03 square metres of high usage footways and 8,77,757.67 square metres of lower use footways in the city.

Based on a “worst case scenario” of around 10% of the footway network failing between 2023 and 2037 due to weeds and vegetation this is estimated to cover around £116 million pounds in resurfacing.

Additional Street Cleansing Costs have also been modelled based on 42 additional operatives, additional road sweepers, and other vehicles, and plant machinery being brought into the operation to uplift street cleansing service to manually remove weeds has also been costed at around £2.4 million per year – circa £32 million over the remainder of the PFI contract.

Therefore, the total potential cost implication of complete cessation in a worst-case scenario could be as high as £150 million of additional expenditure. This may however be mitigated should there be a legislative change.

11.6

During the discussion on the above item, Councillor Alexi Dimond left the meeting and did not return.