Southville Councillors - Democracy in Action
Our Councillors spend a lot of time engaging with residents to try and help address their concerns. But they seem to put more effort into certain topics.
Weed Control
I have written about this topic in the past and you can read these articles if you want to know more about the topic:
Weed Management Policy
In November 2025 BCC discussed the adoption of the Weed Management Policy.
A lot of progress has been made in reducing the amount of pesticides used in Bristol and they are well on their way to meeting their target of a 50% reduction by 2030. (Usage has been reduced by 42% since 2020).
The Policy describes that chemicals will only be used as a last resort to control problem plants (aka weeds).
The Policy also describes how BCC plan to reduce the use of chemicals in the future.
The main blocker to reducing use further is the very high cost of manual weeding, but there is a "free" option (P.5) where local residents would commit to managing problem plants in their local street themselves (perhaps 3 times a year). A trial will be carried out over the next two years.
The policy excluded two options,
Nowhere in this policy is the option of a local or city-wide ban of pesticide use.
The Southville "Ban"
When I discovered that a blanket ban on weed spraying had been implemented in Southville I wanted to find out how this decision had been made as it was explicitly excluded as a viable option in the Weed Management Policy.
Our Green Councillors Christine Townsend and Tony Dyer were working hard to stop the use of Glysophate in Southville. The efforts were led by Christine as Tony is very busy in his role as Council Leader and does not have as much time to spend on Southville areas of concern.
I submitted a Freedom of Information request asking for correspondence about this apparent "ban" on the use of Glysophate in Southville.
These e-mails are dated before the "Weed Management Policy" was adopted, and I wonder if this policy was documented and approved in order to stop Councillors trying to unilaterally introduce spraying bans.
The previous "opt-out" trial had clearly failed.
Christine Townsend had asked for "spraying in Southville to be stopped".
Cllr Townsend asked for the weed spraying schedule for Southville, but was unsuccessful in getting this information.
Residents were asking how they could "opt out" of weed spraying.
Cllr Townsend took on the task of collating a list of streets that wanted to opt-out.
Residents were also contacting Bristol Waste directly to try and opt our of spraying.
Tony Dyer explained that they were waiting for the opt-out process to be clarified.
Cllr Townsend was clearly becoming frustrated with the apparent inability to operate an opt out scheme.
Cllr Townsend obviously has similar challenges with getting answers as the rest of us do.
At the Area Committee Meeting on 23 Sep 2025 Cllr Townsend appeared to confirm that spraying in Southville had been stopped.
It is admirable that Cllr Townsend has put so much effort into advocating for the residents who want to deal with their own "problem plants", and trying to get the opt out process working.
SBLN
Perhaps she could also look at supporting an opt out process for residents of streets in Southville who don't want their road blocked.
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