The Road Safety Authority and the County and City Management Association are calling on all landowners to cut their hedgerows before March 1 to ensure they are not causing a potential serious road safety hazard.
In accordance with the Wildlife Act, the season when cutting hedgerows and verges is between the start of September and the end of February the following year.
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.
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.