It’s always worth checking your street regularly to see if it looks cared for and safe for pedestrians and your neighbours (see below). You may have very little plant life and little, if any, action is required, other than to keep an eye on your street plants.

If you know your neighbours, it’s always worth chatting to them about the project and to check they are happy with plant life and invite them to get involved. If they express they want plants to be more ‘managed’ see tips in the next section.

Firstly, assess your street for any plants that you believe could be problematic and need to be removed by hand pulling or hoeing.

These plants could be:

• Young tree saplings

• Plants growing out of brickwork which could grow larger such as buddleia and damage buildings

• Plants/clumps of grass which could be trip or slip hazards for pedestrians

• Plants which are blocking drains/guttering

• Plants overgrown and causing an obstruction (these could be partially cut back rather than fully removed)

Secondly, clumps of grass could be removed, leaving just flowering plants to grow on your street.

Please look at our simple guide for typical street wildflowers to help you spot plants to keep (if possible). To help with your ID you can also download iseek via your smart or iphone, it’s a great tool!

Thirdly, plants around gutters, drains, cracks running across pavements could be removed if necessary to keep your street services running smoothly and safe.

Finally, if you feel you need to remove the majority of plant life as neighbours have expressed concerns, you can either remove them after the flowering season, after they have seeded (this is the ideal option) or remove them entirely at any point by hand or hoeing.

Make sure to always wear gloves and then simply dispose of natural material in your garden waste bin

We find it useful to do a litter pick firstly, so you are working within a cleaner environment where possible. Are you a clean champion? Do you know if your street has one? You can acquire free litter pickers, hi-vis and bags if you register.

As often as you like, it’s always good to notice nature on our walks locally.

It is good to allocate a bit of time every 2 weeks during spring/summer to go out with a hoe or gloves to check and remove any problem plants if necessary.

If you have a problem plant (eg a plant that is too big and is causing structural damage or a health and safety risk) you can email Tony Brown at Nottingham City Council. Tony oversees the management of our residential streets:

tony.brown@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Tony is aware of our pilot and his team are there to help our project when needed. They will remove plants without using glyphosate.

Remember, your street will continue to be regularly cleaned by the council during our pilot, the only thing which will stop is the application for Glyphosate.

Currently we are fundraising for hoes and gloves, so we will let you know what we can provide. However, in the meantime, we will also put a call out across our network of volunteers for tools if you need any.

Please do contact us if you need anything at all, we will aim to find what you need and ask across our network for any spare tools for loan.

If you have spare tools to loan or provide please also get in touch.

We have produced a simple Risk Assessment for you to follow – this is available on our website soon and it also will be emailed to you directly. If you have any concerns about safety or physical challenges please get in touch and we will be available to help you.

Yes! We will ask for you consent for us to put you in touch with other Wildlife Champions on your street and neighbouring streets, so you can connect, collaborate and help each other. If there is a chance to create whatsapp groups that would be great, our aim is to create a network and community, street by street.

We will also be creating sub-groups, and your street will be linked to a group of streets in your very local area. These micro-groups will be launched soon and we welcome your ideas on how we can make the most of this model of engagement. It could get creative!

We will also be running wildlife Champion events and opportunities to get to know each other. We have over 100 volunteers now registered with us! So there are lots of friends to meet.

We are fundraising for you to have a range of merchandise to share, these may include window stickers, t-shirts, badges, hi-vis and/or street signs. It’s great to spread the word and be proud of your wilder street! We look forward to sharing ideas with you about this as our plans progress.

Please help us by documenting your street wildlife. Flowers, insects, mammals and bird life. We will provide you with a simple tool to share your images with us soon.

We will also be creating a questionnaire for you as a Wildlife Champion to complete and also for residents on your street to complete in Autumn 2022. We would like you to help us with gathering this data.

It is important that we learn, improve and develop our campaign, and your experience will be really valuable to us.