A GROUP is celebrating after council bosses bowed to pressure and cleared "dangerous weeds" from an Accrington park.

The move came after Tony Hindley, chairman of the Friends of Oakhill Park, claimed the park, off Manchester Road, was "horrendous" in places.

He said that the green space, which won a Green Flag award of excellence in July, was infested with Japanese knotweed, a plant strictly controlled by Government legislation because of its ability to damage buildings, walls and pavements.

He said the weed is growing in 14 different locations across the park and is causing damage to a new £90,000 play area at the site.

It is also affecting walls and paths across the area.

And despite his numerous calls for Hyndburn Council, which owns the park, to clear the menace nothing had happened - until now.

Enforcement officers from the Environment Agency visited the park last week and contacted Hyndburn Council's parks department to notify it of the action that was required.

Coun Lynn Wilson, Hyndburn's cabinet member for parks and open spaces, said: "The Environment Agency contacted us to say a complaint had been made by a resident who feared a pile of topsoil contained Japanese knotweed.

"We do have Japanese knotweed growing in our parks and we have set aside a budget to deal with this.

"With this in mind we took the opportunity to remove some Japanese knotweed from Oakhill Park recently."