Waterford Council says they will be dealing with the issue of Japanese Knotweed again in the autumn.

The non-native bamboo-like plant is an invasive species and can be seen on roads and river-sides.

It grows to about three metres high, and at this time of the year has green heart- shaped leaves and white flowers.

Sinn Fein Councillor Pat Fitzgerald is concerned by the amount of it around Waterford.

He says it’s as bad as ever on the rural roads and he says any landowner that has the knotweed on their perimeter must be verry worried about it.

He asked the council if they could get contractors to deal with the problem throughout the county.

Fergus Galvin a Director of Service with the local authority, said they have been treating this over the past year. The Council has trained all their supervisors over the past months
and they are all engaged in identifying further outbreaks and they will be treated in the Autumn of this year which is the appropriate time for treating japanese knotweed.