Former councillor urges council to tackle barley grass menace to pets

Pets and wildlife are suffering because the council is failing to tackle foxtail barley grass “darts”, according to a former councillor.

Dawn Barnett, who represented Hangleton and Knoll for almost 20 years, said that she was pleased to see that parks and verges were being mown.

But the former Conservative councillor said that those mowing the green spaces often missed all round the edges as well as around the trunks of trees, with foxtail untouched.

And cuttings from mowing were left, which often included the foxtail barley grass “darts”, with dogs, foxes and badgers among the animals that are prone to injury.

As a result, she said, she was being contacted by pet owners who were being landed with vet’s bills for hundreds of pounds a time.

She said: “The council should be doing the job properly or they should pay the vet’s bills for the pets who get injured and have to have the darts removed.

“They’re doing a lot of damage and it’s not right.”

Mrs Barnett, 82, who was a councillor until the local elections in May, said that people in her old ward were still coming to her with their problems.

She said: “I might not be on the council any more but I haven’t gone away.”

Last year, a Mile Oak dog owner Tanya Jeffrey set up a petition on Change.org after her Italian spinone was affected although, unlike some, he was fortunate enough not to need surgery.

Miss Jeffrey said that if seeds got into wild animals’ paws or ears, it could be fatal because open wounds could lead to fly strike, resulting in “suffering and death”.

At the time, Brighton and Hove City Council said that it looked after 600 miles (975km) of pavements but had no plans to resume the routine use of glyphosate weedkiller.

Since Labour took over running the council just over 10 weeks ago, the party has pledged to address problems with overgrown weeds while warning that it would take time.

One councillor said that the problem had grown over the four years since the glyphosate ban, with weeds damaging pavements and making some of them impassable for pedestrians, and would take time to sort.

The council had tested different types of equipment and had offered staff overtime to deal with pavement weeds after struggling to recruit enough people to weed the streets by hand.

Some councillors had even been out weeding and litter-picking themselves while urging community-spirited volunteers to join them in trying to get the problem down to more manageable proportions.

Last month, Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, who chairs the council’s City Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee, said: “You can report an issue in your local area at any time using the council’s online form and they’ll try to tackle it as soon as possible.

“If the matter isn’t resolved, you can report it to your local councillor using the council’s ‘contact your councillor’ webpage’.”

Last week, at a meeting of the full council at Hove Town Hall, three councillors asked about the wider weed problem which has blighted the area since the glyphosate ban.

Green councillor Ellen McLeay asked whether Labour intended to bring back glyphosate.

Independent councillor Peter Atkinson asked if there could be one spray a year, in line with other councils, to keep the weed down – if necessary, with a glyphosate-free alternative.

Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons said that his inbox was full of complaints from residents.

Councillor Rowkins said that weeds had been a key issue when speaking to people on the doorstep during the election campaign, adding: “It’s pretty clear that there has not been a sufficient strategy in place to stay on top of the weed problem.

“We have already begun trialling some new equipment and we are in the process of assembling a policy working group to flesh out a new weeds management policy to bring to committee later in the year.

“We are working very hard on it as it is a priority for the administration. You’re not the only one who has an inbox littered with complaints about the issue.”

The equipment had been ordered before the elections in May, councillors were told.

Councillor Rowkins said that there was “no desire” to return to glyphosate which has been linked with some cancers.

He said: “I am in the process of assembling a policy working group that includes representatives from the streets team, disability groups, the Pesticide Action Network, our biodiversity officer, residents and others, with a view to developing a long-overdue detailed strategy which we will bring to committee in the winter, ahead of the next growing season.”