Commons Bill [HL]

When I was a farming student, new chemicals were on trial to get rid of bracken, and they did. That was a long time ago. My noble friend Lord Greaves mentioned Japanese knotweed. I am a keen fisherman, and some common land abuts quite a lot of streams and rivers. Knotweed is a massive problem along riverbanks; it is spread by the flow of the river downstream. It is a plant that is designed to multiply rapidly. Something has to be done about it because in some places the whole river system will be completely stopped up.