Trees growing so high that they obscure public lighting and the roots causing issues with nearby walls were two connected issues raised in Laois County Council recently.
Cllr Ben Brennan was specifically talking about the Vale and Barrow Vale estates in Graiguecullen where he once again highlighted problems with public lighting in the area caused by overgrown trees.
“Putting trees on a side of the road where there is lighting is lunacy,” said Brennan. “What genius is sitting above in an office somewhere thinking that that’s a good idea.
“What’s happening is we have trees growing up between lights and the council have to come along and fix the problem made by planners and architects.
“You’re busy enough in the council without having to do that.”
Cllr Brennan added that the roots of the trees were also then damaging nearby walls into housing estates.
“We have a situation in Graiguecullen where we have trees and lights one one side of the road and the path on the other.”
Cllr Brennan was supported by his colleagues Vivienne Phelan, Aisling Moran and Aidan Mullins who all spoke on the issue.
“When housing estates are built, there should be certain distance left from roads and paths,” said Cllr Moran.
“As a condition of planning, there should only be a certain type of tree allowed that isn’t going to impede traffic,” added Cllr Mullins.
“There has been good work done in some areas on this but there needs to be more,” added Cllr Vivienne Phelan.
Cllr Brennan’s motion had called for the Council to “cut back or cut down the trees in the Vale and Barrow Vale estates. They are cracking a wall and lifting a footpath”.
Responding on behalf of the council, senior executive engineer Tom Drennan said, “Laois County Council have assessed the trees in this estate and have recently carried out tree pruning works”.
“Some trees were also removed that were deemed to be compromising the public road network and potentially other effected infrastructure in this estate”.
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