BACKGROUND
We were instructed by our client – A property developer to carry out a survey within the Preston Bagot area as Japanese Knotweed was identified within a hedge row of a residential property on one of their sites. Our client was looking for costs to remove the Japanese Knotweed from the hedge row.
SITE SURVEY
During our site survey, we confirmed that Japanese Knotweed was present within the established overgrown hedgerow and also a very small amount of growth in a grassed area by the hedgerow. Our technician recommended two options to our client:
Option 1
A Japanese Knotweed herbicide treatment plan, which would consist of 3 visits per growing season over a period of 2 seasons to apply herbicide via folier spray technique directly to the knotweed.
This will eradicate the knotweed in situ, but will almost certainly damage the surrounding hedgerow as it will be extremely difficult to treat the knotweed without a small amount of overspray.
Along with the management plan, guarantees we provide would satisfy most lenders if the current owner would seek to sell the property in the future.
Option 2
The hedgerow would be carefully removed around the knotweed and placed on the land for burning under a D7 exemption (burning waste in the open) from the Environment Agency.
The knotweed area can then be excavated using the clients on-site plant machinery and placed onto a biosecurity barrier.
We will then manually screen this soil to remove all traces of knotweed rhizomes and material, they will then be placed in secure dumpy bags for onward transportation to a licensed landfill transfer station under EPA 1990 Duty of Care Guidelines.
The small area of removed soils on site will also be screened and removed.
The cleaned soils can then be reinstated in the voids.
Full waste transparency documentation will be suppled, along with the management plan.
Our client decided to go with manual screening, see images below.
