- EXCLUSIVE: Glenys Parsons says her home is at risk from knotweed infestation
- She is fighting a housing association next door to take responsibility for it
- Knotweed has destabilised a 15-foot retaining wall at the edge of her property
A grandmother is living a Japanese knotweed ‘nightmare’ after an invasion by the garden menace left her seaside home unsellable.
When Glenys Parsons and her late husband, Tony, bought their neat, terraced house high above Swansea Bay in south Wales almost 25 years ago, they hoped it would help fund their retirement.
Instead, the two-bed property has become an unsellable misery – thanks to rapacious Japanese knotweed that has taken over their garden.
The source of the weed is a neighbouring garden owned by a housing association that refuses to even try and stop its spread, Mrs Parsons claims.
As a result, the knotweed now covers almost every inch of the now-widowed Mrs Parsons’ garden and has started to destabilise a 15-foot retaining wall at the edge of her property.
‘It is a total nightmare,’ said retired carer Mrs Parsons, 69, who has a son and two granddaughters.
She and her son’s girlfriend, who currently lives in the house in Swansea, have to spend a whole day and several evenings hacking away at the knotweed every week to try and keep it under some kind of control.
But the harder they toil, the faster and more vigorously it grows back, Mrs Parsons said.
The neighbouring property was owned by Swansea Council, who regularly sent workmen to thwart the weed’s progress by spraying it with herbicides.
But when it was sold off to a housing association – Coastal Housing – in 2008, the treatment stopped and it has been allowed to run riot ever since.
Mrs Parsons said she has written numerous letters and emails to Coastal Housing – with photographs and even academic papers on Japanese knotweed – making them to try and curb its spread, but they refuse.
She said: ‘They had the nerve to tell me it doesn’t spread so I sent them lots of articles written by scientists and garden experts stating the exact opposite, but they still refuse to do anything about it.
‘It’s pretty obvious to me they just don’t want the expense of treating it.
‘As a result we’re having to deal with it as best we can but I’m nearly 70 and it’s hard work.
‘I’ve got a big garden of my own to look after at the house where I live and don’t have the time or energy any longer.
‘I’d sell it if I could but it is unsellable. No one would want to buy a house with knotweed all over the garden and threatening the retaining wall.
‘No one would be able to get a mortgage on the place anyway because of the weed.
‘Me and Tony bought it as an investment property for £32,000 in 2000. He thought it would help fund our retirement, bless him, but it hasn’t worked out that way and he died early, at the age of 52, a few years later.
‘I feel like I’m stuck with a nightmare now. It is very, very stressful.
‘I’m also worrying that if it spreads beyond my garden, to our neighbours on the other side of us, they could sue me. That keeps me awake at night too.’
Mrs Parsons added: ‘Before my son’s girlfriend moved in, the property was left empty for almost a year because of this problem.
‘Although the house isn’t affected as such, she can’t use the back garden because it’s so thick with knotweed. It’s an ugly jungle of the stuff.’
Coastal Housing’s head of maintenance Andrew Thomas said: ‘There is a small patch of knotweed located in the garden of the Coastal property which is noted on our knotweed register for regular monitoring and treatment.
‘The most recent treatment of this area was October 2023. The fence bordering the property was also inspected and repaired at this time.
‘Where knotweed is affecting private gardens, we are unable to treat or maintain those areas.’
Japanese knotweed is the most common of four invasive knotweed plant species in the UK.
These are Japanese knotweed, Dwarf knotweed, Giant knotweed, and Bohemian (hybrid) knotweed.
Knotweed can grow in most soil conditions found in the UK and particularly in manmade habitats such as roadsides, waste ground, railway embankments and cuttings, and spoil tips that are made up of waste material from mining or quarrying.
It’s also commonly found along rivers and streams.
Knotweed spreads through direct rhizome (root) growth and new plant growth from the parent plant’s stem and rhizome fragments. A new plant can grow from pieces of rhizome as small as 1cm.
The UK Government’s website says: ‘You must stop Japanese knotweed on your land from spreading off your property.
‘Soil or plant material contaminated with non-native and invasive plants like Japanese knotweed can cause ecological damage and may be classified as controlled waste.
‘You do not legally have to remove Japanese knotweed from your land unless it’s causing a nuisance but you can be prosecuted for causing it to spread into the wild.’
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
