Suggestion me for turf alternative on scrubby land

[APurpleSquirrel]

Our house is an old new build (10yrs) - at the front we have a small bed then a boundary line marker & in front of that is a strip of what was grassed turf. However, over the years, despite ours & our neighbours best efforts it has been taken over by dandelions.
It's not deep, maybe 15-20cm deep & quite possibly has cables or pipes under it. Other neighbours have dug it out & replaced with bark chips or gravel, but I want to keep it as plants.
Technically it's council owned (the road was officially adopted last summer) but other than sending someone to chop down anything that crossed the boundary lines, there have been no further attempts at upkeep - & I'm not really expecting any tbh as council budgets are stretched etc.
So what to do? I want to get rid of the dandelions & plant something else useful to wildlife but it's full south facing, poor soil, not deep or wide. I want it to stay low lying ideally.
I've already got creeping thyme in the bed behind. I thought about wildflowers but am worried they'd need too much upkeep.
Any ideas?

Succulents? They like shallow poor dry sunny soil and some of them do flower too.

Vinca, campanula, or Erigeron karvinskianus. All excellent ground cover plants that are tough as old boots.

A wildflower mix loves poor soil, and there are lots of mixes available.
Boston seeds are recommended by the RSPB for good native seed mixes that benefit wildlife.

Keep the dandelions? They're beautiful.

Dandelions are sought after in Singapore.

One year on a similar scrubby bit of land I weeded and put a bit packet of wild flower seeds down. It was beautiful. But it's more work than you think to do it long term.

So I'd do that once.

Hardy geraniums would be great for the bees, some are quite thuggish and keep the weeds away. https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/20-of-the-best-ground-cover-plants/

Dandelions are essential bee food. I always leave some alone in my flower beds on purpose.

The bit along the wall looks sunny and well drained enough for lavender and rosemary bushes. Also much loved by our endangered honey bees and easy to keep up.

Thanks everyone.

The bed along the wall is ours - it's my herb bed & has sage, two types of rosemary, lavender, several thymes & marjoram as well as lots of bulbs.

The problem with the dandelions is they look awful when not in flower & have crowded out the remaining grass. Plus our neighbour tends to mow straight over them & then they look even worse.
On the small triangular section we even got some kind of black gelatinous algae when we had weeks of rain last month.
I'd love wildflowers but having read on here how much hard work they can be has put me off tbh. I know how good dandelion ms are for bees - we let them grow happily in the back garden lawn, but out front it just looks messy.

You could try German camomile then? It’s hardy and looks like a daisy bush. If you dead head it will bloom from late spring and all summer long.