A nine-month-old puppy called Lily suffered an injured paw in overgrown barley grass after a shard became embedded – one of several to have been hurt.
Lily’s owner Alex Bateman, of Kipling Avenue, Woodingdean, has spent hundreds of pounds on vet’s bills after the barley grass spear went straight through her paw and had to be surgically removed.
And vets said that clumps of barley grass in the streets, once kept under control with weed killer, are injuring dogs across Brighton and Hove.
Mr Bateman spoke out after councillors debated tackling the city-wide weed problem at a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting last week.
He said: “The main problem is the grass verges. Straight outside the house, there is a great clump of barley grass – and then it’s all down the road.
“There is no avoiding it. The first thing dogs do when they get out is run into the grass for a wee. She has some shoes now but she sees it as a punishment.”
Mr Bateman first took the cross-breed pup – a Cavalier King Charles, westie and bichon frise cross – to Acorn Vets near where he works in Hove after she started “furiously” licking one of her front paws a couple of weeks ago.
In the week after her initial treatment, Lily’s wounds were redressed but not healing after a shard was removed.
Last Saturday (23 July), she had a general anaesthetic and a 2in (5cm) seed was found still embedded in her paw.
The vets’ surgery where Lily was treated, in Portland Road, Hove, said that staff help three to five dogs a day with barley grass seeds in their paws, ears and up their noses.
Conservative councillor Dee Simson, who represents Woodingdean ward, said: “The council’s inability to weed the pavements is having a cost to pet owners right across the city who are dealing with these vet bills, especially in areas such as Woodingdean where the prevalence of barley grass is greater.
“Woodingdean is surrounded by farmland including barley fields which means both the wind and the birds deposit barley grass seeds all over the place. This means the council needs to be proactive and on top of weed clearing year round.”
Councillor Simson said that the cost to pet owners was just part of the issue as there was a long-term cost to taxpayers with overgrown weeds causing pavements to crack.
She said that there were not enough people working to manually weed the 600 miles (975km) of pavements after the council agreed to ban glyphosate, known commercially as Roundup, in 2019.
Fellow Conservative councillor Robert Nemeth raised the issue at the meeting of the full council last Thursday (21 July).
He said that there were three staff clearing the weeds when 200 were needed after the council failed to seek alternatives to glyphosate before introducing the ban.
He asked: “Rather than continue to pretend these issues can be fixed, would the leader of the council simply state openly that there is no chance whatsoever of having safe, tidy and weed-free pavements under the Greens and Labour.”
Green council leader Phélim Mac Cafferty said that Councillor Nemeth should be enthusiastic about the glyphosate ban because he keeps bees.
Councillor Mac Cafferty said that all three political parties had agreed to end the use of glyphosate in Brighton and Hove.
He said: “This is a ‘no overall control’ council so you can’t just shove things through committee. You need cross-party buy-in.
“We are getting there in terms of catching up with the work. All street cleaning staff who work on foot runs are weeding.”
Council workers were also using new low-vibration trimmers and staff at Cityclean, the council’s rubbish and recycling service, have been offered overtime to focus on weeding.
The council had tried to recruit 28 seasonal staff to tackle the weeding but received few applications.
Instead, it was employing two teams of contractors to focus on weed removal while further efforts were made to recruit permanent workers.
Green councillor Steve Davis said that Brexit was to blame for recruitment issues, with hospitality, transport and the NHS also suffering.
He said: “Roughly 1.4 million EU citizens have left this country and they’re never coming back.
“These people mow our verges, stack our shelves and look after our elderly citizens in care homes. It is a real struggle with recruitment.”
It’s unfortunate that these off lead, and therefore out of control pets are injuring themselves,but the solution is not to spray carcinogenic chemicals all over the place. Feel free to use your superior Conservative brain to fund/pay for a battery powered strimmer and do it yourselves?
Perhaps if central government actually funded essential services the council would have money to spend on manicuring grass verges in woodingdean? A place no one but the residents of woodingdean visit.
Lastly, these aren’t weeds. They are native plants growing on verges. exactly what is needed to rebuild what these older people have destroyed because a herbicide box told them to.
Thank you for your ignorant misinformation. Who supplied this for you?
Glyphosate is not carcinogenic as now agreed by the US and is still legal to purchase and use in the UK. As long as usage instructions are followed it is perfectly safe for insects, animals, and humans. Bought some myself yesterday to spray weeds damaging the pavement outside my house.
Anyway, you would not use Glyphosate on verges as this would kill everything. It just needs regular cutting by operatives and is a statutory duty of our council as confirmed by Green councillor Jamie Lloyd.
The annual bill for spraying weedkiller was £60k which is significantly less than the cost of multiple manual removals manually, and West Sussex County Council has restarted spraying pavements and gutters using a 4×4 buggy.
Thank you for your romantic description of weeds – the actual definition is “a plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one that grows where it is not wanted and often grows or spreads fast or takes the place of desired plants”.
Thank you, Peter, for your usual commonsense. My street over in East Brighton is riddled with weeds, outside the houses, in the pavement, gutters, everywhere and they’re thriving at present. Some of us do try to keep on top of the weeds outside our own places if we’re able to, but much of the street is HMOs or tenants who just come and go. None of them do anything about weeds and don’t give a toss.
Contrary to what some people may think, these weeds do not simply die off of their own accord after the summer and that’s the end of the problem – they seed, lie dormant for a bit and come back even worse next time round.
I keep wondering what I get for my council tax that might actually benefit me. We have communal bins that I can’t get to any more for physical reasons (but there’s a good young lad over the road who takes my stuff to the badly-sited bins for me), proliferating weeds galore and the Greens’ vanity projects, which do nothing for me and a large proportion of the population. Sad in the extreme – and unacceptable.
Peter “no cycle lanes on my watch” Challis is this just some political point scoring or are you genuinely concerned about this issue? calling my actually very basic comments dangerous misinformation is the pot calling the kettle black considering your comments are easily accessible via google. A bit rich….
What the EPA says isn’t particularly relevant if you understand how the EPA assess these things. Applying selective herbicide to grass that is full of weeds to restore it back to grass is pretty 101 gardening. This is what I keep seeing people winging about, how they’re falling over random plants.
Good for west Sussex. Having studied horticulture, when I spot plants growing in unexpected places I am happy because I understand they are fundamental to the ecosystem we live in. Apparently you do not feel happiness, but the urge to destroy. Kind of goes to my point about older generations destroying out planet.
Spraying streets and cutting verges are two different things so why are you bringing up spraying streets? I’m happy if they had more gardeners but mysterious over the years they’ve had to cut more of their services. I guess as per usual we have to ignore why that happened.
Love cycles – just not on pavements.
WDR you were the one who brought up the subject of carcinogenic chemicals being used.
With verges regular cutting will control weeds and you don’t need any chemicals.
We are not “winging” — just demanding the council fulfil their statutory duties that we pay for – sorry – no political point scoring other than pointing out that Green-Labour are grossly incompetent.
I just don’t understand how you can say it’s dangerous misinformation and then say pesticide use is of no danger to the environment. It’s incredibly basic science that pesticide use is problematic ona number of fronts. I actually did a open university free mini course just the other day which said pesticides are carcinogenic when tested on lab animals and are therefore likely carcinogenic to humans. There is also a huge problem of run off into the seas which when you spay outside your house, it goes untreated into the street drains into the sea. It’s crazy that you are so confident about something you are factually incorrect about. That’s what actually annoys me.
Andrew
A dog off a lead doesn’t automatically mean the animal is out of control, that’s just your bias opinion because maybe you don’t like dogs. Facts remain due to lack of maintenance many areas, including footpaths are overgrown, causing injury to humans and animals alike.
In the ideal world, the solution isn’t to use any form of chemicals all over the place. Perhaps the answer is mechanical and manual options where this is possible.
Feel free to use your superior Conservative brain to fund/pay for a battery powered strimmer and do it yourselves?
Silly comment, I always thought people used cash, card ect to fund/pay for things, but of course you need a brain to work that out, perhaps you sold yours to pay for something we already pay for in our taxes.
Perhaps if our council allocated the government funding where it’s needed and not on vanity projects there would be money in the kitty. This isn’t an essential service funded by government, it’s a local basic service that is already in the kitty, it’s called council tax and runs alongside rubbish and recycling and we know what first class and excellent services they are.
Lastly, these aren’t weeds. They are native plants growing on verges. exactly what is needed to rebuild what these older people have destroyed because a herbicide box told them to.
So exactly what we need, okay so what about people getting caught up in these overgrown weeds/native plants and falling over. How much compensation do you think the council will have to pay out?
A lot more than doing what they should be doing anyway.
The article said the dog ran out of the house into the grass verge. Was it not dangerously out of control if it was doing that and injuring itself?
I don’t have any issue with dogs actually… I don’t like the Idea of dogs being injured. My solution is that pet owners carefully walk their dog strategically and perhaps take some steps to remove particularly dangerous plants themselves. For example you can kick most plants and they will instantly collapse and die. Of course the funding issue is critical because whilst you you would like funds diverted for something you care about, vulnerable people across the city are already not having their needs met. My point about “superior Conservative minds” is just a slight on the conservative voters who suffer massive cognitive dissonance where they want people to be personally responsible and yet when it involves them doing a spit of work it’s too much. Not to mention they destroy with one hand and act Pikachu face when their needs aren’t met. It was just a joke.
As to the employment situation, to apply for a job with the parks you need a driving license. A driving license costs thousands of pounds and will take probably 6m minimum. The agency staff they use for short term contracts…well we have far more jobs than we do people, again the elephant we have to ignore. Why would someone do manual labour if they get the same money for non manual work?
Andrew
The article DID NOT say the dog ran out of the house. Perhaps read the article again. The article said. Straight outside the house, there is a great clump of barley grass – and then it’s all down the road. It went onto to say the first thing dogs do is run to the grass for a wee.
You don’t like the Idea of dogs being injured. That’s great.
It’s also great that you recognise dangerous plants exist on our streets. Your solution is feasible to a point, but when we’re talking whole streets, where do you draw the line. Further, how many Senior Citizens are capable to kicking plants down?
There is no funding issue, as stated before, monies taken from our taxes are for basic service’s, the council have clearly stated the reason is ‘They are not using chemicals’ and have failed to recruit the staff needed.
The reason they use for staff shortage is Brexit. They say 1.4 million EU’s have left and never coming back. Realistically Brexit plays a very small part, Covid has made a serious impact on peoples movements don’t forget.
You make a point about moving funds, and quoted quite rightly,
‘vulnerable people across the city are not having their needs met.’
Yes I would agree with that, however, perhaps you’re not aware of the recent Hove vanity project, funding for this project is being taken out of the Toilet refurbishment programme. It’s my opinion Toilets are a priority not putting in pretty plants on Hove lawns.
The comment about “superior Conservative minds” could in fact be aimed at all parties.
Our reading of the article is different but I agree both our positions are based on assumption. It was hyperbole to use the phrase dangerously out of control but perhaps the lesson here is dogs need to be kept under their owners control for their own safety if there is a known risk. Now we know there is a risk…
Here is information on why councils have less money to look after the interests of people’s pets… https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/local-government-funding-england
And Brexit is the reason. If you had ever spoken to the people who used to work in this job you’d know they were European. Suggesting this isn’t Brexit but COVID is wishful thinking from Brexit voters. Denial is the first step… In case you hadn’t noticed cost of living is through the roof, rent is unaffordable on a low wage, wages themselves have been stagnant for years… People from Europe can no longer simply jump on a plane or ferry and pick up casual temping work it’s not because of COVID. Sorry for being confrontational but these echo chambers are not good for people like yourself obviously if you still believe these statements you’re making.
Andrew, your reading is an assumption where as mine is based on the information stated in the article, but let’s not worry about the facts.
Thank you for the link that I was fully aware of, I’m guessing most of it you failed to read as it states other grants and benefits were introduced, and in fact states some councils actually gained additional funding, but that doesn’t fit with your argument.
Further checking resources for BHCC show an actual cut to government funding is 16%, however, 23% extra was gained from other sources and grants.
The council, as you have, and others, can show evidence that there’s been cuts to their budgets, and whinge and moan and only suckers are fooled by it. What the council never do, is give a full comprehensive statement of what additional funding or grants it receives that it never had before, like business taxes for example. Yes there has been cuts but there’s been gains too but hey lets not mention that part.
Brexit, I said if you read properly it played a part.
Brexit is NOT the sole cause and suggesting this isn’t anything to do with Covid is just madness and seriously you need to think hard about this.
In case YOU hadn’t noticed, the country was in a complete lockdown, travel suspended and businesses shut. Workers who were furloughed in some cases left and got other jobs, retired etc. All Driver training schools cars, lorries etc were closed so NO New Drivers passed to take on roles because they were shut down. How many other businesses had similar problems.
That was a direct result of Covid not Brexit.
Your bitterness because you didn’t get the result you wanted is clear for all to see and to your denial of the effects of covid is amazing when it’s clear to those with intelligence it played a major role.
The cost of living is through the roof, rent is unaffordable on a low wage, wages themselves have been stagnant for years all correct and a fact of life at this current time.
People from Europe can no longer simply jump on a plane or ferry and pick up casual temping work it’s not because of COVID.
Absolute tosh, nothing is stopping EU workers coming here, they just have to follow the rules, like all other nations who come to this country.
I am of the opinion that you are hung up on Brexit and will blame everything on it when it isn’t the full reason. I look at things from all sides and can clearly see that while Brexit had an impact, COVID has played greater part, and if you cant see that, you really are as dumb as your comments make you out to be, sorry to be so blunt but that’s how you come across.
Nowhere in the report does it say that dogs were off lead or out of control. If they were walking along the pavement, on-lead, it is virtually impossible to avoid the weeds that have grown up (and also the broken bits of glass every two weeks after the recycling is collected from the leading bins)
I now rarely walk my dogs on pavements. I navigate the pavement hazards and drive them somewhere safer. It’s a good example of trying to fix one problem (with unproven risks) and causing a problem far worse.
There are many other councils that have phased out certain weedkillers. They still keep pavements clear. Why can’t our council?
The council’s statement that they can’t find migrant workers to exploit is shameful. We should pay a proper wage and so find people to do the job. That should always have been part of the business case rather than paying exploitative low wages.
In attempting to reply to you I ended up replying to points both yourself and another user made, as mobile format is tricky
The article said the dog ran out of the house into the grass verge. Was it not dangerously out of control if it was doing that and injuring itself?
I don’t have any issue with dogs actually… I don’t like the Idea of dogs being injured. My solution is that pet owners carefully walk their dog strategically and perhaps take some steps to remove particularly dangerous plants themselves. For example you can kick most plants and they will instantly collapse and die.
It’s unfortunate that councils don’t have funds to meet their obligations but arguably as cold as it sounds dogs having unobstructed pavements is quite low priority. perhaps you’re not personally aware of the magnitude of the probablems in society right now.
As to the employment situation, to apply for a job with the parks you need a driving license. A driving license costs thousands of pounds and will take probably 6m minimum. The agency staff they use for short term contracts…well we have far more jobs than we do people, again the elephant we have to ignore. Why would someone do manual labour if they get the same money for non manual work?
WHY don’t councils have the money to carry out essential work? Isn’t that what council tax is supposed to be for?
A few years back, the cynical among us might have suggested “brown envelopes”, but I’m sure that kind of thing is in the past.
It’s getting blown on Hanover nonsense traffic blocking. And the other mental idea for traffic in West Hove. All funds the council have are getting pi$$ed up the wall on mental traffic schemes. The best traffic scheme would be to un do pretty much everything that has been put in place over the past 15 years
The Council decided to ban weedkiller a couple of years ago without having a plan apart from phoning recruitment agency Blue Arrow . There are many authorities world-wide who have banned pesticide . What did they do.
A Councillor complains that they can’t get cheap labour from Eastern Europe to do temporary dirty work . Imagine if a Councillor in say Germany said we plan to get cheap British labour to clean our streets
So Phelim, as well as preaching on Covid-19 is now also a pesticides expert!
Using Glyphosate to kill weeds growing on pavements and gutters is not dangerous to bees, any other insects, animals or humans if usage instructions are followed and he should stop spreading scaremongering misinformation from anti-pesticide activists.
If we do have 600 miles of pavements, how many people will the council need to manually remove weeds several times per year (as they are not totally killed)?
Interesting that junior Green councillor Jamie Lloyd has been fronting the daily Facebook propaganda machine gushing about how wonderful the council is doing, where they show one small section of pavement badly cleared, but now remains silent, whilst senior Green councillors come to the rescue blaming everyone else for their incompetency.
And remember it was the Greens that pushed through the total cessation of spraying weeds without implementing a practical alternative as part of the secret Labour-Green coalition agreement, and West Sussex has restarted spraying pavements and gutters using a 4×4 buggy.
Housing costs have spiralled in the area meaning low paid manual workers can’t afford to live here. The councils own workers are leaving the city citing this reason. Steve Davis would realise this if he only did a bit of research.
Green councillors don’t do research, plan, or measure the results of schemes – they just blindly follow activist ideology, claim success, or blame everyone else when they screw up.
It is possible for those who live in an area to have civic pride and look after their own pavements, you know. It’s hardly equivalent to mowing a full-size meadow, or even a back garden.
RIchard Wright
As far as I’m aware, residents don’t own any pavements.
The council are responsible and are PAID to do this basic task and the law demands that local councils and the Highways Agency keep roads and pavements in a good condition.
So you think everybody actually has the time and means to do what the council should be doing.
Perhaps we should empty our own bins also, and do our own recycling, paint various road markings, ticket illegally parked vehicles, dish out fines to litter louts, do our own repairs, replace street lamp bulbs, repair pot holes the list is endless.
It’s my opinion your the sort of person who pays for something then quite happy will do the task yourself.
I tried to pull some up today (all on the pavement edge next to my front wall) and they were so entrenched, having infiltrated the kerbstone holding up my railings, that paint came off the kerbstone and there were still weed roots in it, from the pavement. As for the ones actually on the pavement I couldn’t even manage to pull some of them up because they were rooted so deeply. I’ve left the debris I could manage to uproot on the pavement and expect I’ll get spied on and done for littering.
However, I don’t entirely blame the Green administration because we’ve always known they’re totally useless and we’ve known that since they were in last time round and got resoundingly chucked out. Yet people still vote for them. Employed council staff/officers have a lot to do with this and somebody should be getting a grip on them. They love to hire consultants who have no clue what they’re doing (e.g. the Special Needs Transport fiasco and now we have the LTN in Hanover that’s causing uproar) and skew consultations etc etc and, frankly, they seem to do whatever they fancy, with complete impunity. Perhaps a few of them might be stopped from writing fancy reports and sent out to do some weeding??
In other countries the owner of private property adjoining the public footpath is responsible for mowing the grass verge (Australia) and clearing snow (USA). It should be possible to bring in a law or by-law mandating people (freeholders) keep the front of their properties free of weeds. Many homeowners choose to do this anyway – but the majority do not. Stepping over weeds every day when walking in and out of your own front door = no civic pride.
Thank you for the information – however just to point out that in the UK it is a statutory duty for councils to maintain pavements and keep them free of weeds, and we pay for this as part of our council tax tax.
If the law changes, please let us know 😊
Hovelassies
Hmm interesting comments.
Other countries don’t have such things as council taxes that pay for this basic legal requirement. The law demands that local councils and the Highways Agency keep roads and pavements in a good condition.
I have no doubt that people who have the time will keep their area nice. You quote Civic Pride, have you seen the state of the City ?
The council couldn’t care less about the state of the city, can’t even get bins emptied, more interested in booing it’s residents at council meetings, wasting council meeting time and money discussing affairs in an American court that has no impact on us. They are proposing to take allocated funds from toilet refurbishment to help fund the Hove vanity project, yet, we read there’s no resources to help emergency care needed for a child.
The Council seriously do not give two hoots about anything or any one.
Unable to recruit staff to do this work they say, funny how they recruit staff to ‘fine’ people for dropping litter, parking incorrectly, having a BBQ on the beach, yet, because of Brexit, Covid and any other lame excuse they can muster up are unable to recruit weed pickers. Quick enough to find people to destroy the Seafront ‘Green’ wall or had you forgotten about that ?
Council is not fit for purpose and the sooner people wake up to the reality the better for all.
I’m a big fan of the big society message the council is sending out. So much so I went to wicks and got some weed killer and cleared the pavement outside my house with a few squirts on the weeds, no birds or bees killed.
Within 24 hours my house now looks like it is in a town anywhere else in the country. Might do the rest of the street next week.
On a serious note however, the ban on weed killer is not an excuse for all the overgrown trees bases in Hove, street bins over flowing and litter literally everywhere while useless council employed fun police are busy handing out fines on the beach for BBQs and to businesses for having commercial bins… Is it me or is this some really weirdly surrealist comedy?
We have 50000 students and your telling me seriously you can’t get a full rota of part time staff to cover litter picking and street weeding. And the excuse is Brexit. Lol literally the biggest nonsense I’ve ever heard. Cost of living crisis, why not offer people 3 hour evening shifts?