We are responsible for ensuring that verges along the roads and pavements we maintain meet safety standards. We carry out weed control throughout the year in the below phases.

There will be reduced chemical applications within the city’s parks and green spaces unless there is no other practical method of weed control, e.g. Japanese knotweed, sports turf weed control etc.

Phase 1

January – March, Winter Weed Clearance Programme

Each neighbourhood team will spend enough time to make sure that known weed hotspots—such as backlines, kerb lines, courtyards, and walkways on HRA land—are properly managed. This work will include strimming or scrapping out to ensure that moss, weeds and detritus are removed. With a good, robust sweeping routine, this work will help remove growing media and weed seeds, and should therefore help reduce the rapid growth of weeds in the spring.

Phase 2

March – April, Compressed Weed Spraying Programme

In the second phase of weed control, our teams will focus on supporting estate mowing across the city. This approach uses less petrol, which is better for the environment and gives the team more time to maintain the estates.

Phase 3

May – July, Spot Weed Programme

Phase 3 – We use a contractor for this phase which has a large team dedicated to complete the spray programme. This programme aims to get on top of the weed growth quickly in all areas of the city.

The second and third phase of weed spraying will visit all main artery roads and bus routes within each neighbourhood, and focus its main attention on areas with problem or persistent weed growth.

Phase 4

August – September, Spot Weed Programme

The final phase of weed spraying will be carried out by the end of August into late September. This phase will focus on going back and repeating the same spraying programme.

Weed Spraying Schedule 2025

In the event of bad weather affecting the timescales indicated above, we’ll pause our services until the weather improves and it’s safe and effective to continue.

Acceptable level of weeds

In the images below, green represents ‘good’ while yellow represents ‘action is required’ and red represents ‘unacceptable’.