Between January and May 2025, we sent Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to a total of 390 local authorities in all four UK nations. We included city, borough, district and county councils. The list of councils we purchased from a third party also included a handful of town councils to which we also sent FoI requests.
Of the 390 councils we contacted, we received responses from 368 – a response rate of 94%.
We asked councils a total of five questions, all focused on their use of urban pesticides in 2024.
Firstly, we asked if each council, or contractors acting on its behalf, use herbicide in the following six areas under its control:
- Parks and green spaces
- Cemeteries
- Playing fields
- Road verges and roundabouts
- Hard surfaces such as pavements and highways
- Housing estates
We also asked the following four questions:
- What volume/weight of herbicides did the council and any contractors acting on its behalf use in 2024?
- Does the council (or its contractors) use glyphosate-based herbicides?
- How much money did the council spend on herbicides in 2024, not only on purchasing the chemicals but also on associated costs such as application equipment, staff training and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)?
- Does the council have a policy in place aimed at reducing or ending the use of herbicides on land under its control?
As the responses came in, we inputted them into a database to make them easily accessible to residents wanting to find out if their local council uses pesticides. We also set about analysing them to identify overall trends, both UK-wide and within the four nations.