by Nick Tigg, Lewes Town Councillor
Weeds spring up in unlikely places. They flourish in apparently unpromising soil, enthusiastically spreading through the fault lines under our feet. Which is also, coincidentally, how revolutions begin. And up on Lewes’s Nevill Estate in East Sussex, the smallest of revolutions is starting to gather strength…
I live on South Way and, in 2022, I read that East Sussex County Council was using glyphosate weedkiller (a chemical with links to cancer) to keep our roads and pathways ‘clear’ of weeds. Now we could argue about the logic of this plan (spoiler alert: there isn’t one), but on top of concerns around health impacts is a major question about effectiveness since any plants that get sprayed are just left to die in situ.
Nick Tigg has brought the residents of a Lewes suburb together in order to opt-out of East Sussex County Council’s pesticide-spraying regime.
Conservative County Councillors recently voted to continue using glyphosate because, they say, “people want to be proud of where they live”. I’m sure we’d all agree that the sight of withering plants left to expire in a poisonous chemical soup does not make us proud of our neighbourhood.
Pesticides (including weedkillers) can negatively affect pollinators and other insects which, in turn, has larger impacts up the food chain. It’s fair to say that my partner and I, both beekeepers, were unhappy about all of this. But County Councillor Wendy Maples had managed to organise an opt-out scheme: if a street could get 60% of residents to agree that they didn’t want weedkiller sprayed, and put together a team to do some weeding by hand, they could go pesticide-free. A great deal of door knocking later, 87% of South Way voted ‘no’ to glyphosate.
And that’s where the fun – and the weeding – began.
Soon, news of our triumph spread around the Nevill – other streets wanted to be a part of this bloodless coup, to strike a blow for citizens against chemicals. Groups formed, meetings were held, doors were knocked and finally 95% of the entire Nevill Estate had voted to go pesticide-free.
Does it take a bit of effort to weed a street? Yes, but it’s only a few hours every couple of months. We don’t go mad, it’s not slash and burn, but it is mostly about accessibility. People with buggies or in wheelchairs sometimes struggle to use the narrow Nevill pavements if there are large plants in the way or growing over walls. We want to be welcoming to everyone and, of course, not have wheelchair users being forced into the road for example.
So, what’s been the result of all this? Well, we’re organising regular ‘Weed and Feed’ parties: a bit of weeding in the morning, followed by tea and cake for everyone on the Nevill Green.
And in the end, you get neat streets, fewer chemicals in your local environment, you get to know your neighbours better and you get to eat high-quality cake. Show me a revolution that’s as tasty as that.
Weeds spread fast. So do revolutions. Pesticide-free Sussex anyone?
Nick has kindly written up some detailed guidelines and hopes it inspires you to set up a weeding group where you live.
