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What is Japanese Knotweed?
Phlorum Limited specialises in Japanese knotweed eradication and provides a cost effective and professional service. We provide bespoke solutions that draw upon our expertise in the wider topic areas of environmental consultancy (e.g. in our contaminated land, environmental auditing and ecological work) and our experience in dealing with Japanese knotweed from our large and varied client base. All our staff are highly trained and qualified. Phlorum Limited is happy to provide a 12 year warranty for completed Japanese knotweed works.
Introduction
Japanese knotweed is the most invasive alien species in Britain. It was first introduced to this country from Japan in the middle of the 19th Century. Nowadays, it is commonly found on brownfield and wasteland sites where its presence can add hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds to site costs.
Japanese knotweed exhibits vigorous growth through the soil from a fibrous rhizome (creeping root system) that can cause damage to areas of hard standing, foundations, drains, services, walls and other built structures by growing through cracks and openings between them. Soil can be contaminated with reproductive knotweed material up to a depth of 3m and a radius of over 7m. The Environment Agency recommends the removal and/or treatment of all soil within these extents.
If it is not dealt with before a site is redeveloped, or if groundworks take place for another reason, Japanese knotweed contaminated material can very easily be spread across or off a site, resulting in new areas of knotweed growth and, potentially, criminal prosecution or litigation from third parties. This is because from only a small amount (less than a centimetre) of knotweed root (rhizome), regeneration can occur forming a new, viable plant. To identify Japanese knotweed click here.
Phlorum Limited listens to all our clients’ needs and provides a package that will usually result in at least a 50% saving in costs associated with conventional Japanese knotweed eradication works. We can then go further to reduce waste volumes and landfill expenses by minimizing the amount of material that needs to be taken off site or by providing a complete onsite Japanese knotweed treatment solution.
Legal issues
A variety of laws have been put in place to regulate Japanese knotweed growth in the UK. Phlorum Limited complies with all legislation and relevant regulations.
According to the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990, controlled waste must be disposed of at appropriately licensed waste facilities. Japanese knotweed plant material and/or any knotweed contaminated soil that is discarded, or is intended to be discarded, is likely to be classified as controlled waste.
Section 34 of the EPA imposes a duty of care on persons who produce, import, dispose of, or treat controlled wastes. The movement off site of controlled waste must be covered by waste transfer notes. The transfer notes must be completed and signed; giving a written description of the waste and a waste code. This description must be comprehensive enough to allow the receiver of the waste to handle it in accordance with their own duty of care. These provisions are set up in the Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991.
Japanese knotweed waste must be transferred offsite by an authorised person, in other words a person who is either a registered carrier or who is exempt from registration by the Controlled Waste (Registration of Carriers and Seizure of Vehicles) Regulations 1991.
Section 33 of the EPA states that it is an offence to deposit, treat, keep or dispose of controlled waste without an environmental permit in England and Wales, or a waste management license in Scotland. There are exemptions to environmental permits stated in the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007, and exemptions to waste management license in the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 for Scotland. The Environment Agency Code of Practice 2006 states in accordance with their Enforcement and Prosecution Policy that failure to have a waste management licence or environmental permit, when dealing with knotweed on a site, would not normally lead to prosecution if the Agency’s Code of Practice is followed.
Section 14(2) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 states that "if any person plants or otherwise causes to grow in the wild any plant which is included in Part 2 of Schedule 9, he shall be guilty of an offence". (Japanese knotweed is a Schedule 9 listed plant).
The Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 requires any person who uses pesticides to take all reasonable precautions to protect the health of human beings, creatures and plants, to safeguard the environment and to avoid contaminating water. For application of pesticides in or near water approval from the Environment Agency should be sought before any pesticide is used.
Allowing any Japanese knotweed to escape from your land could make you liable to third party litigation and/or civil prosecution. If you allow knotweed to spread onto an adjacent property an order could be served under nuisance legislation. Not disposing of Japanese knotweed in accordance with the Environmental Agency Code of Practise 2006 could easily result in spreading the knotweed and therefore breaking the law.
The Environmental Agency and/or Local Authorities are not obliged to control Japanese knotweed on behalf of a landowner. Responsibility usually rests on the landlord or tenant of the land.
- Japanese Knotweed Eradication
- Air Quality
- Sustainability
- Noise & Vibration
- Contaminated Land
- Environmental Impact
- Environmental Management
- Flood Risk Assessment
- Ecology
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