Hounslow’s weed removal service
Hounslow Highways clears weeds from the public highways on behalf of the London Borough of Hounslow.
The weed-clearing programmes and its supporting services ensure that all public highways maintained by Hounslow Highways - such as footways, footpaths, and carriageways (pavements and roads) - are treated.
Every street in the borough will be attended to via one of the three Council weed removal services
Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions section for further information.
Weeding programme
The 2023 weeding programme (two cycles of attendance to be completed for the listed locations) is now underway.
We reviewed the feedback we have received from you, and how the 2022 weeding season progressed, and used this to target roads and areas appropriately. The most severely affected carriageways will appear on this year’s Weeding programme.
However, this does not mean that other roads will not be attended to. When we receive reports about individual roads (via FixMyStreet) outside of the Weeding programme, they will be prioritised by severity, and reactive teams dispatched accordingly
More on the regular updates and the current estimated timeline for the Weeding programme.
Additional support and deep cleansing
Deep cleansing
As part of our commitment to improving our weeding and street cleansing service, we have launched a Deep Cleanse programme for 2023. This programme is for areas that might not be as affected as those areas encompassed in the Weeding programme, but where the weeds need more attention than usual.
This focuses on several activities taking place at one time in one road, including removal of detritus and weed, gully cleansing, and graffiti removal. Due to this being a labour-intensive treatment, roads are selected on the severity of issues. This programme is shorter than the Weeding programme, and includes a smaller number of roads.
Ward-based street cleansing
Aside from the weeding programme and deep cleansing programme, the ward-based cleansing teams will follow the usual fortnightly programme. If your road is not listed on the weeding programme or deep cleanse programme, it will be attended through the ward-based programme.
Additional dedicated teams will also attend bespoke locations that require a faster treatment response.
FixMyStreet – report an issue
If you’d like to report a location that cannot wait for the ward-based teams to attend, please submit a report at FixMyStreet and an officer will be arranged to inspect the location.
For further information, please visit out frequently asked questions.
Clearing weeds
Sustainable weed management
As a part of our commitment to ensuring a cleaner and greener Hounslow, the use of chemicals to treat weeds was stopped in 2020. This decision supports the Council’s ambitions for a cleaner and greener borough, and promotes biodiversity and encourages wildlife.
We now remove weeds manually rather than using chemicals, which could be harmful to the environment. Weeds can be controlled without chemicals, but persistent or deep-rooted weeds can be difficult to eradicate.
Hounslow Highways now clears weeds manually without the use of chemical treatments.
Please note: Invasive weeds such as Japanese Knotweed and Mares Tail must be controlled with chemicals as they are especially damaging to the environment.
Manual removal
Our new manual method of weed treatment means the Council has reinvested the resources that were previously spent on glyphosate. These include:
- Additional operatives to manually remove weeds as part of the fortnightly ward-based cleansing schedule. Operatives have a clear mandate to remove all litter, detritus, weeds, and leaf fall as part of their programmed routes
- Dedicated teams with strimmers to support the ward-based teams
- Trials into alternative methods to reduce the germination rate at specific locations.
However, removing herbicides from our weed management does mean that our operatives will take a little longer to effectively clear weeds on Hounslow’s public highways.
Manually removing weeds means they do grow back faster, so ongoing control is likely to be necessary. To ensure an efficient service, we have extended the programme, dedicating two visits to every road listed in the Weeding and Deep Cleansing programme.
We ask that residents wait for the programme to attend each road, but if it is felt that a location needs urgent attendance, then a request should be submitted via FixMyStreet.
