- Jun 1, 2011
- 7,182
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That is true David, they could just “relocate” the JK to a lower level and maintain the membrane wrap, but that could be dependent on how “difficult” the EA choose to be, especially as it would be a private company proposing the relocation rather than a government entity, as was the case with the OS. Save taxpayers money yes, save a private enterprise money? They’re not so accommodating.In theory it does. Over the past few years, the problem has been that development land is scarce and, in a rising market, developers have been willing to overpay for land and then try to lay off the remedial costs on others. Fortunately, most local authorities are wise to this kind of shit.
When I was buying land for housing associations in the '90s and '00s, we frequently would acquire former petrol stations and industrial backland sites, partly because HAs could just about afford to buy the problem sites that private developers sniffed at. The owners would often balk and demand "the same that my mate got from Barratts for his [pristine] site". And we'd have to explain in detail how much we'd have to spend to get his rank, carcinogenic site back to a habitable standard.
I've done four Japanese Knotweed eradication contracts for housing associations, including one absolute stinker along a virtually inaccessible and wildlife-protected streamside in West London. We couldn't do large scale earth removal in a domestic setting, nor along the stream, so the chemical approach was the only feasible tactic, using multiple applications of a cocktail of herbicides including Glyphosate. I'm not sure we could do that now. Though I wonder about the comparative cost to the eco-system of Glyphosate vs. Japanese Knotweed.
If it's just the stadium pitch, they could probably put down a membrane that would keep the JK down, which would eventually starve it to death. If it's a wider area, good fucking luck to them...