Council have difficulty identifying owners of private forestry in Leitrim
The ongoing difficulty in identifying the owners of private forestry is frustrating efforts to ensure that landowners maintain their roadside hedges.
Cllr Mary Bohan highlighted the problem of overgrown hedges on forestry lands at the November Manorhamilton Municipal District meeting.
She asked that measures be immediately put in place to ensure that Coillte and private forestry operators carry out hedge cutting.
She was told that the Roads Office issues hedge and tree cutting notices to all landowners and forestry companies that are brought to their attention.
The Hedge Cutting Grant Scheme provides a grant of €75 per km of roadside hedge/overhanging trees to be attended to along the public road network and it was noted this is available to individuals, communities, and groups of applicants/ residents.
However, it was acknowledged that identifying the owners of private forestry was problematic as there was no register to draw information from.