Have Lewisham given up trying control weed growth in pavements, around street trees and even in gutters? It leads to many roads looking tatty and uncared for.

I would say yes. Let's put it this way, I have been asking the council to empty a blocked gullet on my street for 2 years. Every time it rains heavily the street floods and water enters two properties causing flooding. So far nothing.

They used to spray weedkiller about every 6 months.

Then it is long overdue.

I agree it can look shabby. It's been going on since austerity measures hit local authority budgets. BUT not spraying allows all the wild flowers to seed as well - there are lots of poppies and other wild flowers around the lamp posts especially. All the weeds and wild flowers die off by September / October any, and add to the ecology of the area. Spraying does exactly the opposite, and add toxins to our environment. I've trained myself to stop thinking of it as 'shabby' and think of it as 'bee-friendly'.

I guess 'pretty' weeds are OK. There are some oriental poppies growing along the pavement on my road. I hadn't thought of them as weeds - in fact I've been wondering when's the best time to harvest the seed heads . If they were dandelions, however, I'd be out there with my own weedkiller. Perhaps some guerrilla weedkilling is required?

Harvest the poppy seed heads when they rattle.

Sadly grass is wind pollinated and its mostly grass in our road.

I think Lewisham have gone green on this (either that, or minimum wage was sadly cheaper than purchasing weedkiller) - last week, I spotted a chap from the council attacking the sidewalk weeds with a rather flimsy looking plastic shovel. The poor man was at it forever in the warm weather and still didn't get much done - not surprising as he had been given totally inadequate tools for the job.