Hedges to be cut on 'deadly dangerous' road
Laois County Council is going to erect electronic signs along a 'deadly dangerous' road for a week to facilitate landowners cutting hedges.
The move follows a request from Cllr Aisling Moran in relation to the hedge cutting between The Swan and Glosna Cross. Cllr Moran tabled a motion in relation to the matter at a sitting of Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District.
She asked: “That Laois County Council consider the installation of safety measures to facilitate farmers to cut back hedges on both sides of the road, from Glosna Cross to the Swan with a view to making the road safer as there have been a number of accidents on that road.”
Senior Executive Engineer Philip McVeigh said: “Laois County Council has inspected this road and will arrange to install electronic VMS’s (Variable Message Signs) – one at each end of the road for a designated week. The VMS’s will facilitate any landowners who want to cut their hedges along the road.”
“Thanks. That is a brilliant idea because it is deadly dangerous along that road,” said Cllr Moran.
She said the road is very bumpy and she asked all of the landowners along the road to cut their hedges. “A trailer came off the back of a tractor and hit a car,” she said. “There has been a woman killed on that road,” she said.
“We had a meeting with some of the farmers. They were irate about it. They said they would stop the traffic on that road if something isn’t done with safety measures on that road,” she recalled.
Cllr Ben Brennan said “the road looks perfect. If you get in a car you might have some chance but if you only get on a tractor it is gone bouncy, bouncy…there is no control on it.”
He offered to take Mr McVeigh onto the road on an old Zetor tractor of his. “It would put you out through the windscreen,” he said. “We need to get that road completely done,” he said.
Cllr Padraig Fleming said he would like to see the work being done. “It will have to be a priority,” he told the meeting.