€400,000 budget for hedge cutting in Mayo
THE budget for hedge cutting in Mayo is €400,000.
It is divided between the municipal districts based on road length, with all regional roads and local primary roads typically cut without question. A smaller numbers of local secondary roads are cut, with some localised larger cutting at problem locations done each year.
There is a need to start increasing the budget to deal with ash dieback, councillors have been told.
The breakdown for hedge cutting in each municipal district is as follows.
Ballina MD: 963km - €68,000
Castlebar MD: 1,054km - €74,400
Claremorris/Swinford MD: 2,200km - €155,200
Westport/Belmullet MD: 1,450km - €102,400
The council has a hedge cutting forum that met in the past and there are plans to reactivate it. The forum is made up of three county council officials, four elected members, together with representatives from the ESB, eir, DRCD, IFA, Department of Agriculture, IRHA and NPWS.
In an update at their monthly meeting, councillors were told concerns have been raised by some public and private stakeholders about the quality of some hedge cutting that has taken place.
To address this, the council has delivered training to its own staff and also several contractors. An outdoor practical session at Lough Lannagh demonstrated good hedge-cutting practice, biodiversity benefits, and management techniques, and attendees received guidance documents and invasive species identification materials.
A recommendation was provided that all future tenders for hedge-cutting contractors should include a requirement to attend a short best-practice and legislative briefing before the cutting season begins.
Land owners have again been reminded of their obligations to ensure that any trees and hedges on their property don't obstruct or interfere with or create a hazard for the safe use of roads or footpaths.
Concerns raised by elected members around hedge trimming included over-arching, which is causing issues for trucks and buses, knocking off mirrors and forcing vehicles into the middle of the road.
Councillor Neil Cruise asked that the Department of Agriculture be lobbied that when implementing environmenal schemes, hedges are not planted along roads. And Councillor Patsy O'Brien wondered what assistance can be given to farmers to cut trees on their land, for example with traffic management.
* Published under the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme