Campaigners take weedkiller fight to Sheffield Council
Sheffield City Council will debate tomorrow (6 November) whether to stop spraying the weedkiller Glyphosate on the city’s streets.
This discussion comes after a campaign from ‘No Glyphosate Sheffield’ group.
Tomorrow, the Council will discuss whether to allow streets to opt out of spraying.
The group said: “We must show them just how many streets are against having this toxic chemical indiscriminately sprayed.”
The campaign
No Glyphosate Sheffield says it is organising street by street, with volunteers on 24 streets putting up posters, handing out leaflets and talking to neighbours.
The group says Amey, the council’s highways contractor, sprays the chemical “liberally.”
Campaigners say this kills wildflowers that bees and other pollinators need. Some residents say spray has drifted into their gardens and killed flowers and vegetables.
The campaign accepts the council cannot simply stop spraying without an alternative. It points out that fast-growing plants such as buddleia can block pavements and damage them with their roots. It argues that because the city has declared a Nature Emergency, cutting Glyphosate use should come first.
Green Councillor Marianne Elliot, who represents Gleadless Valley, backs the group. She said she did not think the council should pay Amey to spray streets with chemicals where it is not needed.
The council’s position
The council says spraying is falling. A report to the committee says 1,605 litres have been used on the city’s streets so far in 2026, against 4,865 litres last year.
Committee chair Counc Mark Rusling told full council in June that highway use had fallen by more than 65 per cent in 2026 compared with 2025. He said Amey is not required to spray over garden walls or onto private property.
The council is trialling e-weeding, which kills weeds with an electric current. The report says it works about as well as glyphosate but is expensive and slow. It also carries a fire risk on dry plants and cannot be used in the rain, which the council says falls on 133 days a year in Sheffield.
The wider debate
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in weedkillers such as Roundup. The World Health Organization’s cancer agency, IARC, classed it as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015. When the EU renewed its approval in 2023, it found no critical areas of concern.
In Great Britain, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has approved Glyphosate until 15 December 2026 while it carries out a renewal assessment. In October a minister told Parliament the HSE is considering extending that approval again.The EU has approved it until December 2033.