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The use of glyphosate for amenity weed killing and any breaches of UK pesticide regulations

RFI-2026-0764
Tuesday, 23 June 2026

Request

I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000/Environmental Information Regulations about the use of glyphosate for amenity weed killing and any breaches of UK pesticide regulations.
The queries are as follows:
1. Do you or your landscape/ grounds maintenance contractors use glyphosate?
2. Have you or your contractors used any alternative products or methods to glyphosate for weed control? If so what are they?
3. Has your council's policy regarding use of glyphosate to kill weeds changed in the last 5 years? Are there any plans to change in the future?
4. Have your grounds maintenance teams or contractors been found to be in breach of Health & Safety Executive Official Controls (Plant Protection Products) Regulations 2020 or Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012 in the last 12 months?
If so, please outline:
the nature of the infringement of each incident and whether it led to of the following:
Improvement Notice
Fee for Intervention
Prosecution

Response

1). Yes
2). Yes we have several areas in the district that does not have the use of Glyphosate in these areas we manually pull, use manual tools or mechanically remove with machines 
3). No but we are currently running a pilot scheme on all our playgrounds this growing year for no use of herbicide, this will hopefully provide a positive platform to decrease our use year on year. 
4). No