Friday, 29 Mar 2024

Network Rail bosses are in a tangle over Japanese knotweed

Network Rail bosses are in a tangle after being bombarded with 11,000 complaints in eight years about Japanese knotweed growing alongside train tracks

  • Rail firm got thousands of complaints on knotweed getting into private property
  • The state-owned firm has been accused of failing to act over the invasive weed 
  • The weed is virtually impossible to get rid of and easily grows next to rail tracks

Network Rail has received 11,000 complaints about the spread of Japanese knotweed over the last eight years.

The state-owned firm has been accused of failing to act over the invasive weed, which is virtually impossible to get rid of and easily grows next to railway tracks.

More than 6,000 complaints since 2011 were about the plant spreading on to private property, the Times reported.

Solicitors say the company has been too slow to address complaints, with one accusing engineers of spreading the weed by leaving cuttings on rail tracks.  Network Rail denied the accusations and said it spent £1.2million on the issue in the year to March 31 [File photo]

Homes affected can be very hard to sell and can plummet in value. 

During the same period, 203 compensation claims were made relating to the weed, of which 37 closed claims were valued at £500,000 in total.

Solicitors say the company has been too slow to address complaints, with one accusing engineers of spreading the weed by leaving cuttings on rail tracks.

Dorothea Antzoulatos, a solicitor handling the complaints, said the firm’s response was ‘broadly insufficient’. 

Network Rail denied the accusations and said it spent £1.2million on the issue in the year to March 31.

Network Rail has received 11,000 complaints about the spread of Japanese knotweed over the last eight years. The state-owned firm has been accused of failing to act over the invasive weed [File photo]

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