Ask your council to stop spraying pesticides on your street
Toxic chemicals are routinely sprayed on pavements, parks and verges across the UK, harming pollinators, pets and people, and stripping life from our streets.
Your Wild Streets is calling on councils to go pesticide-free and manage public spaces in safer, nature-friendly ways.
One email to your councillor can be the starting point for change.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Pesticides are widely used in public spaces, often as standard practice rather than necessity. They kill wildflowers, reduce biodiversity and expose communities to unnecessary toxins.
Pesticide-free approaches combine non-toxic methods with nature-friendly management, creating cleaner, safer and more resilient places to live.
Every email sent to a councillor helps build pressure for change and shows that residents care about how their streets are managed.
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A message from our team
In this short video, Maddy explains why Your Wild Streets is calling for pesticide-free public spaces and how the campaign works.
Watch the video to learn more then take action below.
Maddy,
Your Wild Streets Campaign
Co-ordinator
unmute here!
How this campaign works
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1. Submit the form
Share your name and postcode so we know which council to contact.
2. We contact your councillor
Our team emails your local councillor on your behalf, copying you in so you’re part of the conversation from the start.
3. Stay involved (optional)
If you tick Join UK Youth for Nature, we’ll be in touch to support you further. We'll share updates, resources and ways to get more involved locally.
4. We help push things forward
If your council responds, we’ll help keep the momentum going, from follow-up emails to inviting councillors to briefings, and working towards a meeting where possible.
5. Building change together
Each message adds pressure, builds visibility and helps move councils closer to pesticide-free streets.
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Click on the pack to download your own copy!
Our Council Manifesto for Pesticide-Free Streets
The Your Wild Streets Council Manifesto brings together evidence and practical policy commitments showing how councils can reduce and phase out routine pesticide use, while managing streets and green spaces in ways that support nature and communities.
Our manifesto outlines clear council asks, from investing in non-toxic alternatives and workforce skills, to nature-friendly verge management and joined-up urban nature recovery.
This document is written for councils ahead of local elections in England later this year. Your Wild Streets is a UK-wide campaign, and the priorities set out here reflect our broader asks for pesticide-free streets across the UK.
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Your Wild Streets podcast
The Your Wild Streets podcast was a limited-run series exploring the politics of the pavement - from glyphosate-sprayed verges to the power of letting nature return to our streets.
Across the series, we spoke with campaigners, thinkers and growers including Mary Reynolds, Satish Kumar, Jack Wallington and PAN UK, unpacking what’s at stake when public spaces are managed for control rather than life.
These conversations trace how local action, political pressure and cultural shifts can open the door to biodiversity-rich, pesticide-free streets and what it will take to move from tidy, depleted margins to places where nature is allowed to thrive..
You can listen back to the full series now.
Wilder streets, richer in nature.
With around 84% of the UK population living in an urban area, it has never been more important to make our cities and towns more wildlife friendly.
Did you know that 10% of pesticide use in the UK happens in urban spaces? Spraying of these chemicals is concentrated in the areas that we walk through on our way to work or school, and the places our communities spend free time such as parks and sports fields.
This makes urban spaces the second highest cause of pesticide exposure, behind food. This has harmful effects for not just our wildlife and waterways, but pets and people too. Several of the 38 different types of pesticides used in towns and cities across the UK have been classed as possible or probable carcinogens.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, as a ‘probable human carcinogen’. Pesticide use spells disaster for wildlife, by turning our fields and road verges into green deserts, they remove the wildflowers relied upon by the insects which are essential for our birds and other wildlife.
Many pesticides, including glyphosate, easily dissolve in water and end up in our rivers and streams, wreaking havoc for aquatic wildlife. As the body of evidence for the harmful effect of pesticides on people and planet grows, more towns and cities are opting to reduce or ban chemical pesticide use.
We need pesticide and herbicide-free streets, for wildlife, for our communities, for our own health.
More about our Your Wild Streets campaign
Take a look at some of the things we've been up to.
Urban Nature Day
Every year UK Youth for Nature runs an urban nature day in a major city in the UK. In 2023, that was Liverpool, 2024 in Bristol, and 2026 we're coming to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
Urban Nature Day is a free and accessible day, connecting young people up with their local urban environment, with creative and campaigning workshops, nature walks, panels, talks and art installations.
In 2023, we focused on access to nature, in 2024 we focused on local action for our Your Wild Streets work. In 2025 we will have even more exciting things to offer, so keep an eye on our socials, or sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date.
