Galway County Council’s policy on hedge cutting would be examined in detail by a sub-committee to see if there was a better way to manage the vexed issue of overgrowth which was threatening the safety of road users.

Hedge cutting was a constant source of complaint from the public to councillors at this time of the year. The Council gave the contract to cut hedges to a number of contractors across the County to carry it out, gave money to community groups to also undertake the work while giving its own staff certain areas to cut back.

Cllr Gerry Finnerty (FF) said the work done at Lough Cutra School was a disgrace. He felt the whole set-up should be put under the spotlight as cars and trucks were having wing mirrors knocked off and signage was being hidden from overhanging trees and bushes.

“It should be a priority as soon as kids go back to school.”

Cllr Geraldine Donohue (Ind) said it was up to councillors to put pressure on their party TDs to change the 1993 Roads Act, which put the responsibility on landowners to cut back hedges on their properties as well as cutting down trees destroyed by Ash Dieback Disease which was causing branches to fall onto roads.

Cllr PJ Murphy (FG) said the Council was disincentivising farmers from getting the work done on their land as they waited for the local authority to do it without expense on them.

“The legal responsibility to maintain land is plainly set out in the laws. As a local authority, we are taking on the doing of it for farmers – 60-70% of farmers are not going to do it. I paid €1,500-€2,000 to get it done.

“Had I waited another month, the Council would have done it anyway. We are either doing it efficiently, punctually and have it completed by September or we don’t do it at all – it’s counter-productive. The way we are doing it now, it’s not working,” he fumed.

He suggested cutting no hedges apart from those at junctions and outside schools to identify the landowners who did not maintain them and then pursuing those who were “shirking their responsibility”.

Cllr Finnerty said while that may work in the likes of Laois and Kilkenny where individual farmers own vast tracts of land, it was more difficult to do in Galway where individual fields were owned by different people.

Cllr Jimmy McClearn (FG) said some overgrowth damaged roads as they didn’t allow the sun in to dry them out, which would cost the Council more money in the long run.

Fianna Fáil’s Martina Kinane said it would not go down well with the electorate if the hedges were ignored while they were saddled with 15% extra Local Property Tax.

Senior engineer Rachel Lowe told the Loughrea Municipal District meeting that the Council did not get a separate budge for hedge cutting and pulled it from various road maintenance budgets, which should be used to fix potholes.

Other local authorities managed it in different ways – some wrote to each landowner reminding them they had the legal responsibility to carry it out, others concentrated on funding community groups to carry it out.

Galway County Council only pursued prosecution when there was a safety issue.

A motion by Cllr Donohue to put it on the agenda of the Roads Strategic Policy Committee was agreed.

Pictured: Cllr Gerry Finnerty….critical.