Ireland's Hedgerows

embraer170

What is it with all the destruction of hedgerow recently? Seems to have reached terrible proportions in Kerry recently with many previously beautiful stretches of road with nice hedgerow and mature trees being ripped to shreds. Is this the landowners or the council?

Furthermore in all this debate about one off housing, especially the eyesore factor associated. If people left their natural hedgerow instead of building ugly 6ft walls, in many cases you’d barely notice the house.

Thoughts?

Doper Than U

Its the council. I'm all for leaving the hedgerows on our land for exactly the reason you mention. I currently have 50 acres of farm that I can't use because I'm not allowed to build a one off house there.. so I leave the hedgerows because :

(a) I couldn't be arsed trimming them for no reason whatsoever.
(b) Wildlife
(c) They provide a natural and beautiful screen.

Council don't care though. Without fail, every year, along they come with their big hedge strimming truck and just scythe the hedgerow with no regard for how it will look, wildlife or regrowth.

mike65

Yup its ugly and destructive and done as policy to avoid lawsuits from motorists who cant see round bends on country lanes..which is a valid complaint but of course the council go over the top and cut back to the bone. AFAIK they can only cut at certain times of year to avoid culling too much birdlife.

Mike.

embraer170

What say does the landowner have in all this?
After all the hedgerow is on his land.

mike65

This is a guess but I bet the land owner has no power with regards to what growth "overhangs" from within his/her property. While you prolly find if say a tree is considered dangerous they have the power to order it removed.

Mike.

Doper Than U

The landowner can trim it himself, allowing the most appropriate branches to be cut off... but the council can still come along and trim it anyway. They do stick to a certain time of year so as to minimise damage. The landowner is supposed to do this aswell.

MT

Embraer170 wrote:

Furthermore in all this debate about one off housing, especially the eyesore factor associated. If people left their natural hedgerow instead of building ugly 6ft walls, in many cases you’d barely notice the house.

Very good point. I think that planning regulations are partly responsible here. In Ireland, border walls of a certaing size seem to require no planning permission. This results in no quality control, size limit and worst of all a rash of the things being built everywhere. Then add this to their deterioration due to substandard construction and poor maintenance and you have the cause of a major eyesore besmirching the verges of many a country road. I hate the things - indeed, they often ruin the appearance and setting of a good house.

Anyway, compare this approach to the one taken in England. They require planning permission and so are difficult to get built and must be of a very high standard/quality of construction. But the greatest advantage of these tougher regulations is that so few of them get built. And so most properties are instead bordered by much more visually appealing hedgerows. True, they're harder work to maintain but they'll never suffer from rising damp and they won't begin to fall apart after a few years. All in all, hedgerows blend in, clearly differentiate rural areas from suburbs and towns and have an infinitely softer appearence on the eye.

smileygal

the worst hedgerow replacements are those cast concrete fences imo

CJhaughey

Embraer
are you talking about Hedgerows being trimmed/butchered or removed wholesale?
If it is the latter it is probably developers who are doing the damage, They are busy destroying Kenmare as we speak, planning permission has been granted for about 500 houses outside Kenmare on the Sneem road and of course the first thing that the developers do is: knock the ditch. "If people can't see em they won't buy em"
It is disgusting and makes the place look like a west Dublin housing estate.
Cutting mature trees and replacing them with manicured grass and tiny saplings........ just another sign of the Gombeen attitude that permeates all aspects of political life.
Rant over, Sorry!

netwhizkid

Yes that is quite true, Kenmare is being destroyed non-stop, it's no different from any conjested dublin during the summer, with cars backed up for miles from the bantry/glengarrif side and the sneem/killarney route is no better, all the new houses that have being built there over the last few years in outlandish, and almost right on the sea shore in places, Planning eh ? its easier to build a house in kerry now than a sandcastle. And as you say alot of old growth trees and hedgerows have been ripped out. Kilgarvan is now about to suffer the empty-houses "so-called" boom Kenmare is quickly becoming another castleisland. Hedgerows are a beautiful sight in the summer although they are quite farmer unfriendly, i quite like them, anythings better than barbed wire aka thorny wire down here in kerry.

Regards netwhizkid

KnowItAll

They'll tear them all down eventually. They don't care about the animals or the destruction of scenery. If theres money to be made then the hedgrows will go. Thats modern Ireland.