Level of road verge trimming in the county 'very poor'

The level of verge trimming taking place on some roads was described as “very poor” at a recent meeting of Roscommon Municipal District.

Raising the issue, Fianna Fáil councillor Paschal Fitzmaurice said that verge trimming work on the N60 was usually completed in June but wasn’t done this year until August 15th. 

He told the meeting that there was still verge-trimming to be carried out on a lot of roads.

“It’s too late and I hope it won’t be the same again next year. To be honest, it’s been very poor and disappointing,” Cllr Fitzmaurice said as he highlighted several dangerous junctions.

The councillor said that this verge trimming work would normally have been carried out through the area offices “but for some reason”, it was taken over by a contractor to do all the national routes.

Pointing out that the work was carried out this year by the same contractor as last year, MD co-ordinator Tom McDermott explained that the contractor was “late coming on site” this year. 

He outlined that work on the national primary routes was carried out first.

Mr McDermott informed councillors that a review of verge trimming would be carried out.

“We have to learn lessons from it if there is going to be a review,” said Cllr Fitzmaurice.

Other councillors also highlighted the importance of verge cutting especially near dangerous junctions.

*Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Schme.