The council has been slammed over claims weeds are one of the main causes of the £60 million pavement repair backlog in the city.

Green councillors say Labour’s claims are unsubstantiated but are being used to justify a return to using toxic chemicals in Brighton and Hove.

At a recent meeting, Brighton and Hove City Council's environment boss Tim Rowkins claimed it was spending £50,000 a month on repairs to pavements and that uncontrolled weed growth was one of the primary causes behind a £60 million backlog.

However, the Greens say a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted to the local authority has since found the council holds little data to support Councillor Rowkins’ claims that weeds are to blame.

The FOI asked for a breakdown in cost of damage due to plants growing in pavements for each financial year dating back to 2013/14. The Greens say this response confirms the council does not “record defects based on their cause”.

Councillor Kerry Pickett, who represents the Greens on the city environment, South Downs and the sea committee, said: “It is becoming clear Labour will say anything to justify their decision to instruct council staff to start using glyphosate again – a decision which is not only unpopular with residents but potentially harmful to them as well.

“To say there is a £60 million backlog in pavement repairs which is primarily caused by weed growth is simply not backed up by any data currently held by the council – something it took an FOI to uncover.

“It is far more likely that pavement parking – something we know is becoming more and more common on our streets - is causing most of the damage and leaving cracked pavements which, if not repaired quickly, then see weeds growing through the gaps.

“Labour backed itself into a corner by promising to rid the city of weeds and in a desperate attempt to avoid another embarrassing manifesto U-turn, they are trying to justify using glyphosate in whatever way they can – despite the fact, I may add, that not using glyphosate was also one of their pre-election promises.”

Cllr Rowkins said: “The council’s transport department has been very clear that weed growth, which has been uncontrolled for five years, is now causing damage and contributing to the £50,000 per month bill. The FOI request simply said that we don't record data on whether a specific piece of damage is caused by ‘plants’.

“While the driving factor of our new approach to weed management is to ensure that the city’s roads and pavements are safe and accessible for everybody, a secondary objective is absolutely bringing down the cost to the council of repairs to damaged footways.

“The Greens have consistently pretended that there isn't a problem with weeds and are in denial about their failure to deal with the problem when they were in office.

“We are taking a more responsible approach that will get the problem back under control, using a far safer and more targeted application than ever before.”