CLEARING THE GROUND – NUISANCE, DAMAGE AND JAPANESE KNOTWEED

MR. Williams and Mr. Waistell each own a bungalow in Llwydarth Road, Maesteg. Their properties lie back from the street, abutting the railway line between Garth and Ewenny Road stations. The land beside the track belongs to Network Rail, a nationalised company that owns most of the UK's rail infrastructure. For at least 50 years Japanese knotweed has visibly grown on the railway's land. Japanese knotweed, as all gardeners know, is a menace, suppressing all other growth where it appears. It can also undermine house and garden walls, overwhelm sheds and block drains. It spreads underground through roots, technically "rhizomes", and because it can regenerate from small amounts of material, is devilishly difficult to eradicate, requiring several years of chemical treatment or professional deep digging, drying and burning. Japanese knotweed is counted as "controlled waste" for the purpose of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and since 2013 sellers of property must declare whether their land is affected by it and, if it is, provide a professional management plan for its eradication.