Public exhibition on ecological issues

Yesterday, Phlorum staff attended a public exhibition for the master-planning proposals for St Bede’s, a large private school in East Sussex.
The school owns a major land resource in its rural location, many of which has important ecological and visual amenity value.
Phlorum has already undertaken a number of ecological assessments for the school, helping them gain planing approval for a number of new and updated educational facilities.
The aim of the exhibition was to consult with the local community in order to identify constraints and opportunities for St Bede’s future development and enhancement of its land resource. A report detailing the constraints and opportunities analysis for the school can be viewed here.
Feedback from the event was extremely positive, with most people appreciating the effort the school has put into engaging with its neighbours. On ecological issues, the effective management of invasive species such as Japanese knotweed was a recurring theme in the questions from attendees. Most minds being put at rest by the school’s inclusion of Japanese knotweed in its estate management plan.

Further information on the episode that Phlorum helped with is provided in an earlier blog post.

Japanese knotweed invades home

A story in the Daily Mail reports that a couple from Hertfordshire were forced to demolish their £300,000, four-bed home after it was significantly affected by Japanese knotweed growth.

The cost of their new-build home was said to have dropped from £305,000 to just £50,000 as a result of the damaging effects of knotweed, on top of which the house was built.

The couple are suing the solicitors who were dealing with the purchase of the property.

Whatever you think of this story, it’s a frightening illustration that Japanese knotweed is a significant problem that needs to be recognised and professionally dealt with from an early stage of the development cycle.

Japanese Knotweed Advice from Phlorum on Sarah Beeny Show

Phlorum was recently involved in Sarah Beeny’s Help! My House is Falling Down, a Rehouse TV production for Channel 4 television.

Director, Dr Paul Beckett, and other Phlorum staff were invited to appear on the show offering expert advice on the treatment of Japanese knotweed at a blighted property in South London.

The knotweed problem was caused by a significant amount of growth of this invasive weed in the rear garden of the property.

A focus of the show is on helping homeowners to help themselves to deal with various building disasters. It should be borne in mind that when tackling knotweed on your own the situation can be exacerbated, sometimes catastrophically, if effective controls are not put in place and expert advice is not sought before any treatment begins.

Notwithstanding this, the advice offered by Phlorum allowed the knotweed to be cleared from the property and effectively treated, with significant cost savings to the owner.

Following the first broadcast of the show on 28^th August, the feedback we’ve received from our peers in the knotweed eradication world, including surveyors, environmental consultants and contractors, has been hugely positive. This includes the following from a Fellow of RICS:

“I thought that overall the way the programme dealt with the topic was balanced and realistic and the important points were made without being too scary or over the top”.

You can catch the episode, and the whole series, on the Channel 4, 4Homes website here.

Please contact us if you would like to discuss any aspect of the show or any issues related to Japanese knotweed.

Japanese knotweed CHP plant

Scientists are reporting today that Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) could hold the answer to the Peak Oil crisis and provide a sustainable, clean source of energy to generate massive amounts of electricity in huge knotweed biomass power stations.

Extracts from Japanese knotweed rhizomes have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. Compounds such as resveratrol, which are derived directly from knotweed rhizomes, have been proven to cure many ailments, from baldness to heart disease and cancer.

Incredibly, scientists have found that the powerful antioxidant and health giving compounds in knotweed rhizomes, such as resveratrol, are also responsible for the plant’s ability to generate massive amounts of energy. And it is from the capturing and release of this energy in combined heat and power (CHP) plants that has generated excitement amongst the scientific community and governments keen to increase their targets for the delivery of sustainable, biomass electricity.

Tests in Norfolk have shown that by pyrolysing knotweed rhizomes in low temperature ovens, the gas and hydrocarbon fuels generated are only slightly lower in yield than some brown coals. Due to the impressive rate of growth of knotweed  it is hoped that huge swathes of the Norfolk and Suffolk flatlands can be converted into knotweed fields that can be cropped and turned into fuel for a number of massive power plants along the eastern seaboard.

Enough energy should be generated in just a few years to power the enormous demand for electricity in London. It is also hoped that the huge amount of heat generated from the knotweed could be used to crack seawater into hydrogen and oxygen molecules that could then be used to power fuel cell hubs and vehicles in urban areas.

Last year the Telegraph reported that house sellers had been forced to spend thousands of pounds eradicating Japanese knotweed from their land after finding their homes had become virtually unsellable because potential buyers were being turned down for mortgages.

At Phlorum we are increasingly being contacted by home buyers affected by Japanese knotweed who are reporting that mortgage lenders are insisting that they will only approve an application if the Japanese knotweed on the property is removed by a professional.

Having had discussions recently with HSBC and a few of our contacts in the mortgage sector, it seems that many lenders are still resolutely refusing to lend on any property that has been identified as being affected by Japanese knotweed.

Those lenders who are more likely to lend on properties affected by Japanese knotweed will generally only do so after considering a valuer’s comments, but usually, if knotweed is mentioned, they will not want to lend.

One area lenders will definitely not lend where knotweed is present is for Buy-to-let Mortgages.

Natwest and HSBC seem to be the most amenable lenders where Japanese knotweed is concerned. If a surveying valuer’s comments suggest that the knotweed could effectively be treated, then they will seek to deduct the cost of this from the value of the property. However, they will still want some form of guarantee or warranty once the knotweed has been cleared.

Further information on identifying and treating Japanese knotweed can be found here.

We would be interested to hear if you have any experience of mortgage lenders refusing to lend on properties affected by Japanese knotweed. Email or call us on 01273 704449.

WRAP - Halving Waste to Landfill

Leading environmental consultancy Phlorum Ltd has signed up to the WRAP’s (Waste & Resources Action Programme) Halving Waste to Landfill Commitment Construction Commitments: Halving Waste to Landfill. With significant parties involved in this commitment (including the Environment Agency); Phlorum is pleased to be amongst one of the first environmental consultancies to sign-up.

Halving Waste to Landfill has been widely embraced by the construction sector. Since its inception in October 2008, companies that have been closely involved with the programme have witnessed significant improvements in the re-use, recycling and reduction of construction, demolition and excavation waste arisings.

Signing up to the commitment builds upon Phlorum’s long-term services for sustainable building development practices. Involvement with WRAP’s commitment enhances Phlorum’s recent development (in collaboration with the University of Brighton) of a whole-life carbon foot-printing design tool. The tool estimates and makes recommendations to minimise embodied carbon. The tool can model the carbon emissions associated with a home over its whole lifetime; in construction, operation, and decommission.

John Holland, Key Account Manager Construction at WRAP commented:

“WRAP is delighted Phlorum have signed up to Halving Waste to Landfill. There are real cost savings to be made on a range of development projects by reducing the quantity of wastes being generated.

Paul Beckett, Director of Phlorum said:

“We already work for a lot of the companies that have signed-up to Halving Waste to Landfill and it makes enormous sense for Phlorum to align itself closely with the sustainable aims of our clients. Increasingly, these clients are looking for us to project manage part of the development process. As part of this responsibility we need to keep their waste disposal costs to a minimum. I think it’s great that the industry has really pulled together around this commitment to drive sustainability and save money in the process”.

The latest Phlorum newsletter has been issued with information on:

• our lifecycle carbon footprinting tool;
• recent updates to the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which make spreading rhododendron and Himalayan balsam subject to the same enforcement action as for Japanese knotweed!;
• our new ecologist at our Manchester office; and
• news of Richard Schofield’s charity achievement for Cancer Research.

You can read it here!

Japanese knotweed canes in winter

It seems an unlikely scenario but weeds can stop you getting a mortgage, or so it seems from an article in the Metro last month.

Dave Williams from Cornwall has tried to borrow £83,000 from Santander but has been turned down because of a small amount of Japanese knotweed on a piece of land that he bought recently to extend his garden. Although Mr Williams believes that had this been winter the surveyor would not have noticed, it is likely a diligent surveyor would have seen the dead canes that are evident in the winter.

He could treat the knotweed with a suitable weed killer and eventually it will die with perserverance. Patience is the key; do not be tempted to cut it back or dig it up as the roots will spread even without any leaf.  If there is no building work  planned on the area, it doesn’t have to be a big problem.

However, if Mr Williams is thinking of developing his garden, then he has a problem as Japanese knotweed can grow through concrete and tarmac. Currently, throughout the British Isles, it  is causing the construction industry substantial financial concerns running into millions of pounds in costs to eradicate the dreaded weed.

Jane

Japanese knotweed crumble

Ingredients

500g young knotweed shoots, including leafy “spears”, lower sections peeled, sliced into 8cm pieces
50ml water
100g caster sugar
200g plain flour, sifted
100g cold butter, cubed
125g brown sugar

Method

Place knotweed pieces into a 1.5l oven-proof dish. Pour over the water and sprinkle with the caster sugar.

To make the crumble, blend together the cold butter cubes, brown sugar and flour until it makes an evenly granular mixture. Spoon this over the top of the knotweed pieces so that it is completely covered.

Place the dish in an oven at 180 Celsius and cook for 30mins.

Serve with cream, custard or ice-cream.