Mayo landowners may be reminded of their responsibility for maintaining trees and hedges

A Senior official with Mayo County Council has indicated that letters may have to be sent out to landowners outlining their responsibilities to ensure roadside trees and hedges are cut back.

The issue of hedgecutting along public roads was once again raised by west Mayo councillors at the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District where they complained that not enough roads were being included in the hedgecutting programme. During the debate, council officials said that the number of hedges cut was a budgetary issue which was allocated by the councillors and the funding could only go so far.

The meeting heard that the allocation of funding for hedge cutting is coming to an end and some roads will not be included this year. Martin O'Grady, senior engineer with Mayo County Council, reminded the councillors that trees and hedges which are growing on private land are the responsibility of landowners and it was not up to the council to make them safe.

“There are a myriad of roads we cannot get to and that is the problem. We have only a certain amount of money to do as much as we can and the lads in fairness have been flat out in the last six or seven weeks. We have a small amount left over and we can only do so much. “There are hundreds of kilometres of roads which we just cannot get to. That is the reality. Landowners will have to be looked at and in my opinion we will need to send out letters to landowners to tell them to cut their trees. That is the only solution I see,” he said.

Erris-based councillor Seán Carey disagreed with Mr O'Grady saying that farmers cannot be expected to go out on the road cutting as they will be causing an obstruction. “Is it okay for farmers to be on the road cutting trees?” he asked the council management.

Mr O'Grady replied that according to the Roads Act the responsibility for trees and hedges growing on private land rests with the landowner. He told Cllr Carey that landowners will have to engage with contractors who will have a traffic management plan for the road and public liability to cut the trees and hedges.

Earlier, Cllr John O'Malley had complained that a number of roads in the Kilmeena area have not been included in the hedgecutting programme and people are complaining that nothing is being done in rural areas. He told the meeting that he got complaints from truck owners of mirrors being broken along these roads and costing up to €400 to replace them.

“When people say to me what they are getting for the local property tax and all I can say is they are getting nothing. They get a few potholes filled and that's it and it's not good enough,” he said. The Carrowholly-based councillor informed the council management that he will be withholding his 'notice of motion' (NOM) funding for roads next year and use it for hedgecutting if nothing is done about it. “Next year I won't be caught allocating my NOM money for roads. I will be holding back €5,000 or €6,000 so I can get these roads done for people,” he said.

Louisburgh-based councillor Chris Maxwell supported his colleague saying that extra funding is needed to 'make a proper job' of hedgecutting in his area. He also called for overhanging trees to be cut before the winter storms and suggested the council invest in tree shears to get it done.

Head of the Municipal District, Seamus Ó Mongáin pointed out that many of the roads not done are cul de sacs and they are not prioritised due to the low numbers of traffic using them. “We have limited resources which determine how much we would like to get done,” he said.

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