Chemical weedkiller will continue to be used in a city’s parks and on footpaths after an effective alternative could not be found.
Sunderland City Council said it had hoped to stop using glyphosate herbicide over health concerns linking it to cancer.
However, after three years of trying other treatments, it said the chemical was the most “effective and less expensive” solution.
The authority also said it had halved the use of the herbicide on its land in the last three years, from 203 gallons (925 litres) to 106 gallons (480 litres).
A council report found that alternatives were “less effective, more expensive and had a greater detrimental environmental and ecological impact”.
Just fucking let the weeds grow. They’re there for a reason.
Clogging up? Are some dandelions really stopping people from getting down a path? I don’t think so. Plants don’t tend to grow very well on trodden paths, any that do grow will be on the edges becoming just an aesthetics problem.