I very much welcome changes to the City Council’s roads weeds spraying problem and I hope these will ensure no repetition of the large volume of complaints in the West End last year.In 2008, there were lots of complaints about residents in the West End about the extent of overgrown weeds on quite a number of streets and I am therefore pleased at new arrangements that I hope will avoid a similar problem this year.
The City Engineer has advised me :
“The weed spraying programme for 2009 started on Monday 27 April 2009. The programme consists of one city-wide spray and it is currently intended to have a second spray of selected areas as approved by the Director.
“Please note that the strongest permitted weed killer will be used this year and weed killing and street sweeping of channels will be coordinated so that they occur at appropriate discrete times.
“I can confirm that given the problems encountered last year in the west and east end of the city, these areas will be tackled early in the programme. For information, the city wide spray will take 7 to 8 weeks to fully complete.”
The early attention this year to last year’s problem areas is to be welcomed, as is the use of more effective weed killers. I certainly hope that there will therefore not be the extent of problems we saw in 2008, but in the months ahead, I will welcome any feedback from West End residents on any problem areas.