A council banned herbicides. Guess what the weeds did

As any gardener who has spent the summer bent over their patio knows, tackling weeds is no easy feat. So spare a thought for the London residents who have been left living in an urban jungle after councillors banned weedkillers and instead encouraged them to “embrace biodiversity”.
Locals in Lambeth, south London, say the area is “starting to look derelict”, with pavements beset by “4ft-high” weeds. Last week the situation on one pavement got so bad that a Liberal Democrat councillor took matters into her own hands, clearing a thorny weed that had grown to “the size of a small child”.
The irate residents are the latest victims of a trend for councils to abolish glyphosate weedkillers — even though scientists are divided as to whether the common herbicide poses a risk to humans. Brighton and Hove made headlines with its own ban in 2019, when it cited research suggesting the chemical harmed bees.
Three years ago, Lambeth said that stopping the use of the product would allow weeds “the chance to flower” and “contribute to local biodiversity”. After banning the substance, the council handed responsibility for clearing weeds to road sweepers but only “as time allows”.
Now a review of the policy by the council’s scrutiny committee has admitted that “chemical-free weed management has presented challenges”. The review noted: “Despite increasing the dedicated manual weed control resources by ten additional full-time operatives this year, the pace at which weeds regrow has been notably faster than the scheduled removal cycle.”
It added: “The presence of weeds currently divides opinion between people wanting to embrace biodiversity and others perceiving them as a sign of deterioration.”
While most locals commenting on social media are unhappy about the area’s pavements there are some who welcome the wilder look. One resident posting on X urged people complaining to “learn to love weeds”, which she said were just “plants in the wrong place”.
Donna Harris, the leader of the local Liberal Democrats, welcomed the ban on glyphosate but questioned the council’s approach. She asked: “Why have more environmental and sustainable alternatives not been introduced?”
Andrew Gibson, a former mayor of Lambeth and former Conservative councillor, added: “It grieves me to see the state of some areas. The estates look unsightly, and while areas could be left ‘wild’, tenants appear to be forced to live in unkempt conditions.”
Some councils are exploring substitute products to remove weeds, such as foamstream. Others are looking at alternatives such as removing tarmac entirely in places. Campaigners are encouraging councils to enlist local residents in favour of glyphosate-free areas to help weed pavements.
Locals are also upset about the amount of rubbish being left on the streets. A recent survey in the area found that less than half of residents thought they lived on a clean road.
Petr Kaiser, 28, who runs the Best of Clapham Instagram account, recently posted about the growing litter problem in the area. The post was liked nearly 700 times. He said: “I don’t remember it ever being this bad and unfortunately, the situation seems to be getting worse. The area is full of litter, overgrown plants, and a general lack of environmental care. When you compare Lambeth’s streets to the next-door borough of Wandsworth, it’s completely different.”
He claimed that Labour councillors had been “dismissive” about the situation and ignored emails of complaint.
This year an investigation by The Times revealed that Lambeth council was one of the least effective local authorities in the country, under-performing on housing, social care and children’s services. Lambeth is also the second most complained-about borough.
The borough’s leadership team has also been hit by problems. This month its former chief executive Bayo Dosunmu pleaded guilty to drink-driving, failing to stop after a car crash and driving without insurance. He denied possession of a class A drug, and will stand trial this month. He stepped down from his position in July after he was charged.
Lambeth’s accounts show street cleaning was contracted out to Serco in 2021 in a six-year deal worth £119 million.
Simon Morrow, a local resident who set up the campaign group the People’s Audit to scrutinise the council’s activities, believes this contract is at the heart of the problems.
He said: “I have made nearly 30 complaints about the cleaning in my road over the last 18 months, including at director level, all to no avail. I have lived here 24 years but never once complained until Serco took over the contract. I compiled all my complaints and sent them to the ombudsman.
“Senior management don’t seem to care. Ironically, Serco did a blitz in our road last week as there were trees growing out of the pavement. That appears to be the modus operandi. Wait until it gets really bad then do something. It’s simply not OK to fail taxpayers on the absolute basics, like keeping streets clean and emptying bins on time.”
The latest complaints figures show that Lambeth received more than 12,000 complaints in the past six months — the equivalent of nearly one for every ten households in the borough. Serco accounted for nearly one in ten complaints.
In a statement, Lambeth pointed out it was not the only council to stop using glyphosate and said the decision was taken because of the product’s “damaging health and environmental impacts”.
A spokesman added: “Our street sweepers do remove unwanted weeds, and we have added extra staff to this task in response to more weeds than usual growing this year during the summer. Further, the weeds will die off in winter.”
On litter, the council said that when problem areas were identified, it sent staff to the area to take “immediate action”.
The spokesman added: “Our street cleaning contractor is subject to contractual commitments to meet local needs, and inspections are carried out several times a month. We take complaints seriously, and in the light of concerns raised we will review to ensure targets are being met.”
Jamie Rickard, of Serco, said: “We take pride in the appearance of the streets of Lambeth, with all streets scheduled for a deep clean every six weeks, including weed removal. We would like to apologise to the residents of [the road with the thorny weed]. On this occasion, our service standards fell short of what we expect. My team has commenced an investigation to identify why this happened so we can put appropriate measures in to prevent it happening again.”
Irate residents may take heart that the glyphosate-free experiment has not bloomed into success elsewhere. Weed-strewn pavements led Brighton’s Labour-led council to end the ban earlier this year, reintroducing the herbicide to pavements and roads but letting weeds grow in parks and open spaces. North Lanarkshire council and the Isle of Wight council have also resumed using the weedkiller after previously banning it.
The Pesticide Action Network, an environmental campaign group, continues to encourage councils to ban glyphosate. The group called the reversal by Brighton and Hove city council “incredibly disappointing” and a “huge step backwards.” It noted that the local authority had received just 56 complaints about weeds to its customer service team.