Cllr. says that money is being wasted on light trimming of our roadside hedges
A CONNEMARA councillor has called on Galway County Council to engage with landowners to put in place a more practical and effective method of roadside hedgecutting.
Cllr. Seamus Walsh (FF), outgoing Cathaoirleach of the Connemara Area councillors, said that the present system of trimming hedges – either at the start or the finish of the bird nesting season – just wasn’t working.
“If the roadside bushes and hedges are trimmed back in March then the big burst of growth comes in June and then it’s back to square one during the Summer.
“There has to be a better and more efficient of managing this roadside growth and I am asking Galway County Council to engage with landowners as regards how this can be done,” Cllr. Walsh told the Farming Tribune.
He also raised the issue at last Friday’s Connemara Area meeting in the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill, where he said that a hedge-management – rather than a hedge-trimming – system should be put in place.
Cllr. Walsh said that in other jurisdictions, a far more effective coppicing system was in place with roadside trees and bushes cut back in the off-season which eliminated the problem of overhanging branches.
“We see the same thing happening each year – a trim before the start of the nesting season in March and one at the end of it in September – with a big overhang of growth and branches.
“There are roads in Connemara where two vehicles can barely pass due to the roadside overgrowth. It’s a problem that must be tackled in a different way,” said Seamus Walsh.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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