Japanese knotweed specialists in Manchester

Guidance from Manchester City Council

• The council says controlling knotweed is the landowner's responsibility, although owners are not obliged to remove it.
• Residents are warned not to dig knotweed out or dispose of it themselves. It cannot go in the green garden waste bin or to a household recycling centre.
• Where knotweed is spreading from next door, residents should speak to that landowner first. The council works to contain knotweed on public land, which can be reported online.

Further information is available on the council's website: Japanese Knotweed.

Local background

• In June 2025 the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found no fault with Manchester City Council over its handling of a resident's repeated knotweed reports; the council had said it could take enforcement action where knotweed spread from private land onto council land. (source)
• Under the Natural Course project, Greater Manchester Combined Authority commissioned surveys from mid-2022 of knotweed, giant hogweed and Himalayan balsam along the main rivers of the Irwell catchment in Greater Manchester. (source)

The law in England

It isn't an offence to have Japanese knotweed on your land, but under section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is an offence to plant it or otherwise cause it to grow in the wild. Government guidance says you must stop it spreading off your property. Soil or plant material containing it is likely to be controlled waste, which must only go to an authorised site, and councils can use community protection notices where someone's failure to deal with it unreasonably affects people nearby.

See our guidance on Japanese knotweed and the law.