Public views sought on biodiversity following trials of organic weedkillers

Alec Doyle, Local Democracy Reporter

A county council is preparing to launch a public consultation to gauge the public’s views on biodiversity as part of the drafting of its grass cutting and weed control strategy.

Flintshire County Council’s Environment and Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee has recommended seeking feedback to better understand the public perception of biodiversity and approaches to managing grassland areas.

Officers could then look to devise weed control strategies that better fit with public expectations.

It comes following a review of the grass cutting season in 2025 where organic alternatives to traditional glyphosate weed control products were found to be significantly more expensive, require more applications and were less effective at controlling weeds.

Glyphosate chemical products are being phased out due to their impact on  the environment so Flintshire needs to identify a suitable replacement.

Looking back at the work carried out last year, some members of the committee raised concerns that the alternative non-chemical methods for treating weeds were ineffective and led to complaints from residents.

Others raised concerns about the harmful effects of the chemical treatments on human health, wildlife and plants.

Last year a number of new methods were trialled, including spraying organic herbicide treatments from a sprayer mounted on a quad-bike, hot foam designed to kill weeds using heat, a mechanical walk-around weed ripper, manual scraping, road sweepers with modified weed brushes and a multi-head weed removal tool.

All were more beneficial to biodiversity but none were as effective or cost-efficient as the glyphosate treatments in controlling weed growth.

Differing views from complainants have led the authority to propose a public consultation to help inform the council’s weed control strategy going forward.

“We have to strike a balance between promoting and protecting biodiversity and managing safety,” saidd Chief Officer for Streetscene and Transportation Katy Wilby.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all solution unfortunately, for that reason it is more resource heavy in terms of applying multiple different methods and it can be more expensive.

“That’s why we are proposing to go to public consultation to see what the public think about how we approach things in Flintshire – understand their perception of the situation we are in where we can’t continue using glyphosate but understanding to limitations of the alternatives.”

The last published data gathered on Flintshire residents’ views on the council’s environmental management came in the 2025/26 public consultation on the local authority budget.

In that document environmental maintenance ranked seventh on the public’s list of spending priorities out of 17 council functions.

Cabinet will decide whether to approve the consultation plans when it meets on Monday, February 23.