COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 08, 2021

QUESTION NO. 9

QUESTION: Councillor Eoin Ó Broin

To ask the Chief Executive what his strategy or approach is with the regular trimming of hedges and branches of trees that block road signs, block footpaths and block cycle paths? The motivation for the question is that I have so far in 2021 submitted over ten members reps asking for trees or hedges that are blocking roads signs, footpaths or cycle paths to be trimmed which makes me wonder how this vital service is organised?

REPLY:

There are certain obligations and restrictions in place relative to trimming / hedge cutting. It is not the responsibility of Local Authorities to cut roadside hedges but rather cutting and maintenance of roadside hedges is the responsibility of the landowner/occupier of the land .

Under Section 70 of the 1993 Roads Act the owner or occupier of land shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that a tree, shrub, hedge or other vegetation on the land is not a hazard or potential hazard to persons using a public road and that it does not obstruct or interfere with the safe use of a public road or the maintenance of a public road.

Hedgetrimming should be carried out between 1st September and 28th February as between the 1st March and 31st August each year it is an offence under Section 40 (1)(a) of the Wildlife Act 1976 as amended by the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 and the Heritage Act 2018 to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy any vegetation.

Regular inspections of all the trees and hedges across the county is not possible, however, as locations are identified these are investigated and landowners are served with an enforcement letter where appropriate. 

The Council's Public Realm Section operates an annual hedge cutting programme for hedges around parks and open spaces and also hedges which are adjacent to footpaths and cycletracks, where the land and hedge are in Council ownership.  The programme commences in October each year and runs to the end of February, hedges in general are cut once per year.  The programme is organised in such a way that hedges which can give rise to safety concerns on footpaths or cycle tracks are cut at the start of the programme in the period October to December.  Hedges within parks which do not interfere with footpaths or cycletracks are cut towards the end of the programme in January/February and in some cases these are cut less often than once per year.