Policy on the use of pesticides
The Parks and Open Spaces Service has been moving away from
using chemicals wherever practical, replacing their use with
cultural and manual methods. Pesticides are no longer used in Green
Flag Park sites or play grounds, except where pesticides offer the
only effective option such as in the treatment of some persistent
weeds. The council no longer uses chemicals to control plant
diseases (other than on fine turf areas) preferring to plant
resistant species and improve its plant maintenance regimes.
In non-Green Flag sites, specialist trained contractors are
employed to control weeds in selected situations. There is no
blanket application of spray. Individual weeds are sprayed on their
leaves with a contact herbicide that moves through the plant to
kill it. This means that only areas with current growth are
treated. This restricts applications to lightly trafficked paved
areas. A maximum of three applications are made each year. In
exceptional circumstances a residual herbicide (one that stays in
the soil surface for several months) may be used to provide control
in known problem areas, though the emphasis remains on the
reduction of usage of this type of herbicide.
The borough occasionally has infestations of the Browntail moth.
The caterpillars of this species of moth have fine hairs that can
cause irritation or occasionally more serious reactions in humans.
Where infestations are found, they are pruned out and the arisings
disposed of; pesticides are no longer used to treat this
problem.
Some pesticides are used on the council's four bowling greens to
maintain the fine grass surface that is required for this sport,
including fungicides to control turf diseases and lumbricides to
reduce worm casts and prevent root damage by leather jacket larvae.
In these locations our trained greenkeepers use their experience to
ensure that treatments are kept to a minimum and are carried out in
a safe and timely way.
Rats and other pests are monitored and outbreaks controlled only
as and when necessary by the council's pest
control service.