KIRKLEES Council is taking action to weed out problem plants from the countryside.
Council officers have drafted new policies in a bid to stop the spread of weeds such as invasive Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed, spear thistle, creeping thistle, field thistle, curled dock, broad-leaved dock and ragwort, which poisons grazing animals.
The council's new policies were prompted by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel for Transportation and Environment, which expressed concerns about the effectiveness of council weed control in January.
The panel was meeting today to consider the new policies.
Any decisions on them will have to be approved by the council's Cabinet.
John Heneghan, overview and scrutiny officer, said: "The panel is following up the previous recommendations they made.
"Rather than doing anything radically different with weed control, it is more about being more efficient and pulling together current practices into one policy document."
The new policies drafted by officers have also been prompted by new legislation about ragwort.
The Ragwort Control Act, which came into effect in February, gave the Government powers to draw up a code of practice on how to deal with ragwort.
A policy has also been drawn up by officers for controlling Japanese knotweed.
A risk assessment will be carried out to see if council activities are accidentally spreading Japanese knotweed.
Officers are also looking at streamlining its weed control service.
Currently, Kirklees Highways, Culture and Leisure Services and Environmental Services all undertake weed control.
When the highways' weed control contract is next re-tendered in December, officers will consider expanding it to cover weed control activities currently carried out by the other two departments.
Officers also want to improve the council's relationship with the public by creating a single point of contact for weed inquiries.
* For advice on disposal of knotweed or ragwort visit www.defra.gov.uk or contact Kirklees Culture and Leisure Services on 08009172400.
