A FARMER has offered to graze his sheep on Oxenhope Parish Council's Marsh Common to help control the spread of invasive Japanese Knotweed, according to one local parish councillor.

Councillor Tony Jones informed fellow councillors that the sheep would not be enough to eradicate the weed, but would help prevent it from getting out of control.

"We can't burn the weeds yet because if you burn these weeds just after they have been cut they can still spread," he added. "We need to let them dry out first.

"The farmer did also offer to have the knotweed chemically treated, but that was before he realised just how much of it there is.

"There is not going to be an easy solution to this. We have more or less stopped knotweed from spreading on Millennium Green, but there was less of it there in the first place."

A village resident attending last week's Oxenhope Parish Council meeting said she had noticed how much knotweed was present on Marsh Common, and asked whether there was a plan in place to tackle it.

Parish Council chairman Coun Neal responded that the conservation group which used to manage the land was no longer in existence.

He asked whether it would be possible for a team of offenders to be provided by the Probation Service to tidy up the site.