Decision - Managing verges and weeds

Brighton and Hove Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee Decided 15 Mar 2022 approved GET /api/coverage

Decision maker

Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee

Report author

Paul Campbell

Published

17 Mar 2022

Reference

6572

As published

the council's own words, unedited

1) That Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee note the contents of this report. 2) That Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee approves the verge management pilot as detailed in Section 3. 3) That Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee strongly makes the point that the representations from residents and their elected representatives will guide locations and mowing regimes unless unreasonable.

Parsed from the document

gpt-5.6-luna-2026-07-09 · 5953/1456 tokens · 10272ms · parsed 9 Sep 2026 11:44

Everything below was read out of a PDF by a model It is useful and it is not authoritative. The document it came from is linked in the rail, and where the two disagree the document is right.

The report sought approval for a three-year pilot to reduce mowing of selected small grassed areas from 11 times a year to approximately six, supporting wildflowers, biodiversity and carbon reduction. It also updated the committee on pesticide-free weed management, including the planned procurement of strimmers, an electric sweeper and a hot water trial.

Recommendation

That Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee note the contents of the report and approve the verge management pilot detailed in Section 3.

Financial impact

No direct financial implications; activities are funded from existing City Environmental Management budgets. A Carbon Neutral Fund allocation of £80,000 will allow City Parks to procure electric ride-on mowers and mowing heads designed for long grass.

Ward affected

city-wide

Decision maker

Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee

Date in document

15 Mar 2022

Stakeholders named

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ResidentsVisitorsCommunity groupsVolunteersWard councillorsPeople using wheelchairs or mobility scootersMotoristsCyclistsPedestriansMaintenance operatives

Next steps

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City Parks will complete a three-year trial of reduced mowing for selected small grassed areas.
City Parks will work with the Living Coast Biodiversity Officer, ward councillors, community groups and volunteers to identify and enhance pilot locations.
The pilot will be communicated through a news story, Member briefing, the council website, social media, signage and engagement with community groups.
Three additional strimmers and a small mechanical electric sweeper with weed-removal attachments will be procured for the 2022 season.
A hot water weed-removal trial will be completed in April 2022.
Updates on the verge-management trial will be reported to future committee meetings.
Cityclean will use the 2022 season and hot water trial findings to prepare for 2023.

Precedents

not built

"Decided elsewhere" is not built Finding the same decision in other councils needs semantic matching over decision text, which is part of the search rewrite. Until then, the council's own decisions list is the way through.