Brighton and Hove City Council responds to concerns about weeds and overgrown verges in the city

Brighton and Hove City Council has said sorry about the amount of pavement weeds and long grass on verges in some areas of the city.

A council spokesman said: “We are aware that some residents are concerned about the amount of pavement weeds at the moment, as well as long grass on verges in some areas.

“We’re sorry about this – and we wanted to update you about the problems we’re facing and what we are trying to do to improve things."

The spokesman went on to explain: “The council ended the use of Glyphosate for weedkilling on hard surfaces in 2019 with cross-party agreement. It was made clear at the time this would result in more visible weeds. But there are definitely more weeds on pavements than we’d like there to be at the moment.

"The key problem we’re facing is difficulties recruiting enough staff to keep on top of these issues. We started our seasonal recruitment in January this year and have carried out open days and other initiatives.

“Unfortunately, we have only managed to recruit nine of the 26 seasonal staff we would normally take on to deal with the increased amount of weeding needed during the spring and summer months."

The council said many of its seasonal staff used to come from European countries for the summer but said Brexit, alongside the pandemic, was continuing to have an impact on recruitment.

The spokesman said: “We are also having difficulty getting the equipment we would like to improve the efficiency of weed removal. We have equipment on order that was due to be with us weeks ago but has been delayed.

"This includes a small vehicle that can remove pavement weeds and which is due to arrive in August. We recently managed to buy four industrial low vibration strimmers, and more are due to arrive at the end of June. Off the shelf domestic strimmers are not suitable because they are not powerful enough and because of the harmful effect on staff using vibrating equipment for extended periods.”

The council said its street cleaning staff who work on foot rounds are weeding when they can.

The spokesman added: “We are sorry for any problems residents are experiencing. But we would like to assure you that we are doing all we can to try to get back on top of the issue and will continue to push hard on it.”

The council said it was taking the following steps:

*Employing two teams of contractors to focus on weed removal

*Setting up contractors to remove excess growth and weed around tree bases. We hope this will start in the next two weeks

*We have also instructed contractors to assist with verge cutting.

*We have ordered brushes to adapt one of our sweepers for larger pavement areas – this should be in action by the end of June

*We are looking at a range of options to improve our chances of recruitment

*We are offering overtime to operational staff to focus on weeding

*We will be promoting voluntary and community group weeding and provide advice, tools and support.

To find out about seasonal work for the council, visit www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/jobs