Brent is becoming overgrown with weeds, which which make the streets look scruffy and unattractive, according to two councillors.
Labour representatives James Powney and Anne John say that ever since the council changed its street cleaning contractor, in April last year, the borough has become peppered with rogue weeds, cropping up on the edge of pavements and between paving stones.
The pair are now calling for the local authority to reinstate the use of herbicides to kill off the plants and smarten the streets up.
Councillor Powney claims there are around 1,020km of pavements in Brent, but says only seven people are employed by the council to keep the weeds under control.
He said: "It is ridiculous and pretty much impossible to cover such a vast area with such a small team.
"The old contractor was putting down herbicide, which is used by most local authorities to get rid of weeds and allows you to cover a very big area very quickly.
"But the new one is relying on someone digging the weeds out of the pavement manually, which is very time consuming. It just doesn't work."
Waste contractor Veolia was hired by the council in April 2007 and the pair say weeds have been taking over since.
Mr Powney added: "If you go anywhere in the borough you will find weeds all over the place.
"The herbicide needs to be reintroduced."
Anne John, leader of Brent Labour Party, said Welsh Harp was a weed hot spot.
"There are weeds all over the borough but it is more noticeable in the north where there are wider pavements and in residential areas where there are less people walking on the streets. It is a big problem.
"A lot of taxpayers' money has gone into this new cleaning contract and the thinking was that the herbicide was no longer needed because the streets would be cleaned so frequently.
"But this is rubbish because you would need a huge army of people to make it work.
"Once you let them get out of control it looks awful and very scruffy."
Brent Council said it had moved away from the use of chemicals to kill the weeds bacause of the potential damage to the environment, because the weeds remain in the ground until they die and because herbicides are ineffective in wet weather.
A council spokeswoman said: "It was felt that the increased cleansing frequency, as prescribed in the new waste contract, would allow the weeds to be removed manually by the regular sweepers instead."
Nominate you Brent grot spots here
