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‘Substantial damage’ is being caused to larger vehicles in South Kilkenny

There's a call for landowners too to cutback trees if necessary

Overhanging tree branches are causing “substantial damage” to drivers in South Kilkenny.

Cllr Fidelis Doherty raised the issue at yesterday’s meeting of Piltown Municipal District, claiming much taller vehicles, such as lorries, are at risk.

She’s called for the local authority to intervene with the landowners responsible, or to cut back the trees themselves.

The Fine Gael representative says wing mirrors have even been broken in some cases, telling KCLR News “Branches are overhanging, they’re up high but not actually that they’re still hitting vehicles, I’d say a bus or say a tractor, that could cause substantial damage, you know several hundred euro maybe for a side mirror of a tractor or milk lorry or a bus”.

She’s urging locals to take personal responsibility for their trees, noting “While it’s beautiful to have a canopy of trees and it looks lovely there is an impact there on farm machinery, on buses, milk lorries and that so just the call is there really for that to be attended to and that cut-back to happen, it just makes the whole process of using the roads safer”.