Your street can opt out of chemical weed treatment and do volunteer led manual weeding instead.
Some neighbourhoods prefer to manage weeds in their street without the use of glyphosate weed treatment. To support this, we offer a scheme where instead of us spraying weeds, you and your neighbours remove them manually, ensuring the street remains safe and accessible for everyone.
How the scheme works
When a street opts out, routine glyphosate spraying is replaced with volunteer weeding.
We carry out thorough annual weed removal during autumn and winter to give each participating street a clean starting point.
Throughout the growing season (March to September), volunteers are responsible for keeping the street safe and well maintained. This includes removing plants that might:
- create a trip hazard
- damage pavements, kerbs or walls
- obstruct drains or access points
If we notice weeds that could cause safety issues, we'll contact the nominated street coordinator to discuss how to resolve the problem and offer support where needed.
Where weeds remain after an agreed period, and safety concerns are not resolved, we may need to remove the street from the scheme and return it to the standard glyphosate treatment schedule.
How to join the scheme
To join the opt out scheme, your street must have:
- Majority support. A simple-majority vote (one per household) must show that residents support opting out of glyphosate spraying.
- Nominated street coordinator. The street must appoint a volunteer co-ordinator to act as the point of contact. The volunteer co-ordinator's responsibilities include:
- organising the volunteer weeding sessions
- liaising with us
- arranging safe disposal of waste vegetation
- Safety and risk management. Before each weeding session, volunteers must carry out a brief risk assessment and ensure:
- appropriate tools and personal protection equipment (PPE) are supllied and used
- pedestrian access is never restricted
- work is carried out safely and responsibly
- Fallback provision. If the volunteer coordinator steps down and no replacement is appointed, we may reinstate glyphosate treatment to ensure the street remains safe and accessible.
Apply
If your street would like to opt out:
- Hold a majority ballot of all households. Use our document ballot template(96 KB) .
- Once the result confirms a majority, complete and sign the document opt out request letter(680 KB) .
- Send the signed letter and a copy of the ballot by email to the Street Scene Team at streetscene@bristol.gov.uk.
Once we receive your request and it's approved, your street will be removed from the glyphosate spraying rota and Bristol Waste will be informed.