Demands that Exeter's weeds should be sprayed three times this year to porevnt the city looking scruffy are unlikely to be met.
The county council has said that there is money in the budget for one spray of the weeds this year – at a cost of £22,000.
Members of the Exeter Board, which is made up of nine county and five city councillors, do not think one spray is enough.
At their latest meeting they decided to ask the county for three sprays - with the additional money coming from the on-street parking budget.
But Devon's cabinet has responded that using on-street parking income in this way is not permitted under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.
Now weed-spraying is being put back on Exeter Board's agenda.
The board's chairman, Councillor Rachel Sutton, said: "What we are saying is that it is inefficient just to do one spray.
"The city is the county's shop window and if it looks a mess then it reflects badly on everybody.
"It's beginning to look as if the county doesn't care how the city looks.
"If they had kept on top of the weed spraying it would not have become the major problem that it has."
Cllr Sutton added: "There are a lot of people who do pull out the weeds which are in front of their properties and that helps but there are bits which don't belong to anybody."
The Board heard that the county council has set aside £343,916, for treating weeds across the county.
Of this £160,000 is committed to treating harmful invasive weeds (including Japanese knotweed and ragwort).
Approximately £22,000 of the targeted weed spraying budget was allocated for Exeter and the work would be done in liaison with Exeter City Council.
This would provide for one spray for the financial year. In addition £21,000 had been allocated across the whole county for Community Payback work which would fund approximately 15-20 days of work to be undertaken in Exeter.
The cost of two additional sprays in Exeter would be approximately another £22,000.
Given the Cabinet's response Cllr Sutton has said that weeds will be back on the Exeter Board's agenda for its next meeting in July.
Board member, Councillor Rob Hannaford, said: "One way or another the county council will have to find some funding to stay of Exeter's weeds – for several years now we have lurched from one weed crisis to another.
"It is not just their appearance but the damage they do to structures and properties."
