Landowners are being called on to cut their hedgerows before the March 1 deadline, to ensure that a “potential serious road-safety hazard is avoided”.
The call has been made by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and the County and City Management Association who say they are reminding landowners that road safety is shared responsibility.
In a joint statement, the bodies say that overgrown hedgerows and roadside verges can result in road fatalities and serious injury collisions.
They also pose difficulties for pedestrians and cyclists and to trucks and agricultural vehicles carrying loads, especially on local rural roads in the case of sightlines at junctions or obstructions to road signs.
Section 70 of the Roads Act 1993 places responsibility for the maintenance of roadside hedges on the owners/occupiers of the adjoining lands. The responsibility for the maintenance of roadside verges rests with the local authority. The season when this is permitted under the Wildlife Act is between the start of September and the end of February the following year.
Chief executive of the RSA, Sam Waide, said road safety is a shared responsibility.
“It is important that landowners remain alert and take accountability for maintaining hedgerows. We will only make our roads a safer place if we all step up to the mark and take personal responsibility for what happens on the roads.”
On behalf of local authorities, chair of the CCMA Climate Action, Transport and Networks Committee, Paddy Mahon, said:
“Local authorities have an obligation to ensure roadside verges are maintained and that local road safety issues should be prioritised.
“Equally, landowners and anyone living along the roadside have a responsibility to check that hedges or trees on their property are not causing a road-safety hazard.
“If they are, the landowners should take the necessary steps needed to ensure road safety. We are also calling on members of the public to report road safety issues caused by overgrowth to their local authority which can then contact the landowner.”