Westport electoral councillors voiced their concern about the need to trim the hedges along the roads in the Westport area, as according to Councillor John O’Malley, it is a “thorny issue” with the public “as the roads are in a terrible state”.
During the Westport Electoral Area meeting on Monday the Fine Gael councillor said that accidents are happening because of poor visibility on roads from hedge overgrowth and added that a concerted effort is needed to try to get these hedges trimmed.
Commenting on hedge overgrowth, Chair of the committee, Cllr Austin Frances O’Malley, said: “I hear Noel Gibbons and Mr Brett talking about road safety, yet people can’t drive their cars down roads”. The councillor added that hedge-cutting could be carried out by those on rural social schemes, if they were allowed to do such work.
Director of services Joe Beirne said it is the law that landowners are responsible for cutting the overgrowth on their land. He said there are small financial allocations for council hedge cutting and roads will be worked on based on need, paying particular attention to overgrowth at junctions.
