Latest news with #PaulWilkinson
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
My neighbour's bamboo is costing me thousands... but he doesn't care - here's why
It was once late night noise or disputed planning permission that were top of the neighbour row list. But now, an entirely new threat is plaguing homeowners' safety and sanity: bamboo. Historically the hottest garden plant on the planet, designed for privacy or even just to make mundane lawns look slightly more exotic, one Australian resident has now shared the true horrors of the 'disruptive' and 'out of control' plant. Paul Wilkinson, based in New South Wales, told Yahoo News that he has spent almost $3,000 attempting to reverse the damage of a bamboo plant that he says his neighbour first planted five years ago. In that time, he claims it has nearly doubled in size, standing at nine metres tall and entirely overshadowing his two-storey home. The worst part is that despite pleading with his neighbour to manage the invasive plant, who he claims often leaves his property vacant given it is a holiday home, Mr Wilkinson insists that he simply 'doesn't seem to care'. And, as the flora continues to rapidly grow, Mr Wilkinson has been forced to deal with an abundance of bamboo leaves continually falling onto his footpath. He even spent up to $12,000 on 29 solar panels on his roof that the large plant is now blocking, 'significantly limiting' his desired power bill savings. Speaking to the publication about his frustration, Mr Wilkinson said that he had hoped his neighbour would be 'reasonable' after his last power pill came to 'almost a thousand dollars.' He added: 'I understand he seeks some level of privacy, but the majority of the foliage is on the top third of the plant, so when I actually sit on my veranda, I can look straight through the bamboo at the pool anyway. 'If this was cut down, it would be at eye level to provide privacy.' Mr Wilkinson insists that he asked his neighbour in June if they could discuss the bamboo being reduced to an acceptable height and, despite assurances from the neighbour that they would discuss it the next time he was present at the property, Mr Wilkinson has not seen or heard from him since. Having exhausted all other options, the Australian homeowner has now paid nearly $3,000 in legal fees to submit an application to the Land and Environment Court in a bid to get the plant forcibly cut back. Not just an issue for existing homeowners, but also for prospective buyers too, Mr Wilkinson's neighbour horror story comes as MailOnline recently spoke to a woman, who chose to remain anonymous, that discovered 350 square metres of bamboo growing underground when purchasing a new home in rural England. After further probing the sellers she discovered the garden had previously been invaded with ten-metre-high bamboo. While they had a local contractor remove the plant, it is a complicated procedure that had not been done properly. Instead, the bamboo had started to regrow and spread next door, a problem the new owner felt was intentionally being passed onto her. So, before buying the property she decided to have a bamboo surveyor provide a quote for how much it would cost to remove all of the plant. With a ten year maintenance it ended up being an eye-watering £11k, that involved five days of work. Sharing her suspicions with MailOnline, she said: 'The owners knew [about the bamboo] but I think their plan was to sell it with the bamboo and not do anything about it. 'In my job I deal with places that have Japanese knotweed so I know what to look for.' Emily Grant from Environet, an invasive plants management company, also told MailOnline how bamboo is becoming a 'huge problem' within the UK, with a '900 per cent increase in demand for bamboo-related work in the last three years '. What's more, Ms Grant explained that there is a lack of awareness in the UK concerning the 'problematic' dangers of bamboo, with many still opting to use it as a tactic to block out surrounding properties. Instead, homeowners are preoccupied with another invasive species: Japanese knotweed, with 73 per cent of people believing it is more harmful than bamboo. Further highlighting the extent of possible damage caused by bamboo, Callum Hurst, director of C H Enviro, specialising in invasive plant removal, said: 'When you're dealing with bamboo rhizomes, it's a lot more aggressive and it's a lot more hardy and it can cause a lot more damage to concrete and it can manipulate those cracks a lot faster than Japanese knotweed. 'I've been dealing with Japanese Knotweed for about 13 years and there's only been a couple of cases where I've seen it cause structural damage. 'But with bamboo, it will tear up patios, it will break its way through waste pipes and damage underground services it can get into the footings of a building and the cavities it can start growing up in between the wall cavities. 'I've seen it spread from one garden to two properties down, it tore up the whole patio, the waste pipes and it spread all through the lawn, that was about 10 metres of spread.' Despite not being officially classified as an invasive species in the UK, bamboo can spread faster and further than the well-known Japanese knotweed. Stronger than steel, the plant can even reach up to 28 thousand pounds per square inch off tensile strength. It is becoming a pressing issue as it approaches its 'lag period'.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Aussie homeowner forks out $3,000 in lawyer fees over neighbour's 'uncontrollable' plant
A resident is being reminded just how "disruptive" bamboo in a backyard can be now that his next-door neighbour's plant has grown "out of control" and is impacting his garden — and his wallet. Paul Wilkinson told Yahoo News his neighbour's bamboo has almost doubled in size in the last five years, and the tall plant now stands nine metres tall, outcompeting the height of his two-storey home in Brunswick Heads on the north coast of NSW. Despite trying to speak to him about it, Wilkinson claims his neighbour "doesn't seem to care" about the impact it's having on him as the property is only used as a holiday home and is left vacant for much of the year – a fact that makes it even more galling that the fenceline flora casts shade over his rooftop solar panels. "It's the constant raking up and picking up of bamboo leaves, my footpath is covered in leaves and gets dangerous to walk on," he told Yahoo. "I approached him in June about bringing it down to an acceptable height, and he basically said he'd talk to me about it when he was next here. It's eight months later, and he still hasn't been here or been willing to speak about it." Wilkinson paid $12,000 to get 29 solar panels on his roof installed in December in a bid to "save in the long run" on his power bill. He was told by the installer the panels would need to be placed on the northern end of his roof to benefit from solar in the winter. However, the bamboo would cause shade and "significantly limit" his power bill savings. "I was hoping my neighbour would be reasonable," Wilkinson said. "My last power bill was almost a thousand dollars." After failed attempts to discuss the bamboo with his neighbour, Wilkinson has now paid almost $3,000 for a lawyer to apply to the Land and Environment Court in the hope of getting the plant forcibly cut back. "I understand he seeks some level of privacy, but the majority of the foliage is on the top third of the plant, so when I actually sit on my veranda, I can look straight through the bamboo at the pool anyway. If is was cut down, it would be at eye level to provide privacy," he said.🌳 Resident blindsided by 'rude' tree move in common neighbourhood dispute 😷 Highly toxic find in neighbour's garden: 'Should I let them know?' 🚨 Aussies on alert as 'very pretty' backyard plant runs rampant Bamboo is notoriously a fast spreading plant, and garden centre owner Tim Pickles told Yahoo News they're not suitable for narrow gardens often found in Aussie towns and cities. "Bamboo, by nature, spreads and gets wider and wider over time, so in today's narrow gardens, it impacts your neighbours," he said. "They're uncontrollable... it eventually pops up next door... it's disrupting as it can lift pavements, concrete fences... It's a powerful plant." Wilkinson isn't the only Aussie resident wrestling with the issue either. A Port Macquarie woman told Yahoo News last week she's paying $600 more in her power bills every quarter thanks to her neighbour's fast growing bamboo limiting her solar panels to only "5-10 per cent of their full capacity". Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
