Edinburgh residents take matters into own hands to clear overgrown estate weeds
Edinburgh residents come together to improve the look of their community
Residents in an Edinburgh housing estate have taken matters into their own hands to clear their area of overgrown weeds.
Jointly organised by Dumbiedykes Community Growers and a group of local activists, around 15-25 local residents and local church parishioners were out in the sunshine on Sunday, July 19, removing unsightly weeds from pavements in the area between the Scottish Parliament and Arthur’s Seat.
Activist Chris Cullen explained how this community clean-up came about.
He said: “I had seen on the Dumbiedykes Matters Facebook page posts about the weeds being so bad. Locals had tried to get the council to do something about it as there has been an infestation of vermin when it’s overgrown. It’s basically a hotel for them.
“So I got a few people together to go and clean it up. We hit several areas of pavement in the scheme. It was a gorgeous day and we managed to get away before the fire, which was just well, as it’s right next to the crags. We were there for four or five hours.
“We got a good bit done. And it was good to see people passing by stopping and chatting.
“Since the council stopped using glyphosate weed killer, overgrown weeds on pavements all over the city has been an issue.
“We are encouraging Dumbiedykes Community Growers to do more events like this, which I think they are going to do.”
Chris was also critical of the council for feeling to deal with weeds, but he called on communities across Edinburgh to do more to keep their local areas looking the best they can.
He said: “We feel kind of helpless when stuff isn’t done which the council should be doing. But we need to realise more often that we can do stuff like this ourselves as a community.
“The council can afford to put on the Tour De France but they can’t clean-up local areas for residents, despite us paying our council tax.
“We are supposed to be a well-off city, with the highest GDP per person in Britain, and we get council tax rises every year. So we should be seeing more benefit from it.
“Even though we are paying council tax and shouldn’t have to do this, and it’s not to say the council workers are not great, they are, there is just not enough of them.
“So we need to come together as communities and sometimes do things like this, to make our areas look better, so we continue to have pride in where we live.”
A City of Edinburgh Council spokesperson said: “Keeping the Capital clean and tidy is a key priority for us. We invested additional funding in February 2024 to target areas requiring deep cleans. This includes weed removal, power washing, clearing dog fouling and removing unreported fly-tipping.
“The work is ongoing and, to date, nearly 500 tonnes of debris of all kinds have been collected. This is in addition to weed removal regularly carried out by our teams.”