East Sussex County Council has rejected calls to stop using a controversial weedkiller.

On Monday, lead member for transport and environment Claire Dowling confirmed the council will continue to use glyphosate-based weedkillers to control roadside vegetation.

The decision follows two petitions from local residents, calling on the council to ban the use of the herbicide in the Eastbourne, Jevington and Willingdon areas, and in Hastings.

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Green Party campaigner Julia Hilton, who was the lead signatory of the Hastings petition, spoke at the meeting.

She said: “It is almost a year since the council declared a climate emergency and one aspect of that was that we support the aims and implementations of the UN’s sustainable development goals.

“[One of those] is to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems … and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

“Better verge management and banning pesticide use would be a really good start locally.”

Responding to the concerns, councillor Dowling said the council would work with its partners to find alternative methods as part of the next highways maintenance contract in 2023.

She said: “We have already, unlike a lot of local authorities out there, reduced what we do on the ground.

“We have reduced to one spray per year and I believe we are down to the weakest solution that we could possibly do.

“We do have a responsibility for maintaining our highways and gullies and I am aware that we do only look at treating where there are weeds, not blanket spraying.”