Gloucester Glyphosate Reduction Strategy

In recent years, concern has been expressed about the potential public health impacts of glyphosate, which is a widely deployed broad spectrum herbicide and desiccant routinely used by local authorities in low quantities to control the growth of plants in the public realm. 

These concerns stem from the classification of glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and through high-profile court cases in the United States of America.

Glyphosate is currently approved as an active substance for use in pesticide products in Great Britain and public exposure to glyphosate from ‘weed management’ in Gloucester is extremely low in both absolute volumes used and because of ‘micro-dosing’, which involves applying glyphosate in extremely small doses directly to individual plants.  

However, it is indisputable that, as a herbicide, glyphosate is indiscriminate in its elimination of plants in the public realm, removing an important food source for insects. 

As arresting the widely reported rapid decline of insect life is a priority for the council, ‘weed’ management via glyphosate and other herbicides runs counter to these ambitions.

The Gloucester Glyphosate Reduction Strategy sets out how the Council will undertake a managed retreat from herbicide use in the district while ensuring issues that have arisen when other local authorities have undertaken such programmes are avoided.