AHEAD of the March 1st deadline for the hedge cutting season, landowners have been reminded to carry out their responsibilities in the interest of the public’s health and safety.
In a proposal to the February sitting of Clare County Council, Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) urged the local authority to continue the hedgerow cutting programme, urging it and the local media “to redouble their efforts to make landowners aware of their responsibility in maintaining roadside hedgerows in the interest of health and safety of all road users in advance of the, fast approaching, March 1 deadline”.
Under Section 70 of the Roads Act 1993, landowners are responsible for trees and hedgerows on or inside their boundaries adjacent to public roads. “The Act obliges landowners and occupiers to take all reasonable care to ensure that such trees, hedges and other vegetation are not or could not become a danger to people using or working on a public road,” senior engineer in the roads and transportation unit of Clare County Council, John Leahy replied.
Restriction on the cutting of hedges during the growing season are already publicised through the Council’s website and social media channels, Leahy advised. “Where landowners are not in compliance with the provisions of Section 70 of the above act, hedgecutting notices are served. Notwithstanding the foregoing, it should be noted that the Council does provide a budget on an annual basis to facilitate hedgecutting along the most strategically important routes across the county and we have highlighted this hedgecutting issue with the Municipal Districts”.
Landowners and community groups can also avail of the Community Hedgecutting Scheme to access funding to assist with the cutting of hedgerows. A total of 34 grant applications have been approved from September 2021 to date under the scheme.
Hedge cutting is always “an interesting debate,” Cllr Killeen remarked, “I’ve beaten Joe Cooney to it this year, he’s usually in around February or March looking for it to commence earlier” he quipped. The Corofin representative appealed to the media to make landowners aware of their responsibility. He acknowledged that for some landowners it can cost thousands to trim hedges over large sections.
“Coming from a rural area, it is something that keeps raising its head all the time, I know the lads do a good job when they do it, they do it to a certain level but with lorries and tractors they are getting hit because they are only cutting it to a certain height,” Cllr Pat O’Gorman (FF) commented. Consideration to cut back hedges “completely” around crossings and railway bridges is needed, he felt.
By cutting the hedges and overgrowth “it helps the road surface to last longer, that is vitally important, a lot of our roads are suffering because there are overgrown hedges,” Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) said. “Engineers are doing fantastic work, they are getting onto landowners but my belief is that the legislation needs to be changed”.
Increased awareness of the grant scheme would help, Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) observed, “go out and cut them if they need to be cut,” he added.
