BRIGHTON and Hove City Council has paid out over £12,000 to people who were injured on the city’s pavements in the last year, with 32 claims still ongoing.

This comes after just a quarter of pavements were manually cleared around the city in the municipal year from May 2020 until May this year.

With 975,670km of pavements stretching across the city, 243,917km were cleared through the council’s manual techniques.

The council told The Argus they are trialling new equipment such as a new mechanical weed ripper that will “allow better removal from open spaces and wide footways”.

A spokesman also said part of the reason for such low coverage across the city was “due to the pandemic and difficulties in recruiting” staff.

While Gary Peltzer Dunn, Conservative councillor for Wish ward said it is “vital” that the council “fully understand and accept there is a duty of care” to people in the city and said he welcomes these new methods “if in fact it will eradicate the problem.”

Cllr Peltzer Dunn said: “I am astounded by the Green Administration response which appears to try to hide that they have failed to totally address this major problem.”

The Argus: The percentage of weeds cleared in the city is growing as the council trials new methods.The percentage of weeds cleared in the city is growing as the council trials new methods.

“They appear to feel that they have investigated and put new methods into dealing with the clearing of weeds to the pavements and then confess that they have only cleared 20 to be 30 percent of the pavements.

“The Green Party administration appears to feel that their response to this year’s problem was adequate, for example to employ six additional seasonal staff to manually clear the weeds.

“They now have stated that they will be obtaining new equipment and changing the method of clearing the weeds and this is of course welcomed if in fact it will eradicate the problem.”

The council said they are still trialling new methods for weed clearance with certain methods such as hot foam said to be “not very effective”.

A council spokesman said: “Yes, a new mechanical weed ripper/sweeper will be ordered that will allow better removal from open spaces and wide footways such as Old Shoreham Road and New Church Road.

“A trial of hot foam was not very effective as it did not kill the weeds. There are different weeds across the city and one product will not control them all. This is why the alternative tools are being procured.

“With the previous weed spraying, this was completed three times a year with different chemicals in order to deal with the different types of weeds.”

Compared to previous years, weed clearance doubled from 12% of the city since the municipal year from May 2019 to May 2020. This was partially due to the pandemic.

Weed spray, which stopped being used in November 2019, would "cover 100%" of the city, according to the council. But the glyphosate chemical used has come under fire for the health risks associated with using it, most notably the increased risk of cancer.

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