About trees and hedges overhanging the carriageway before somone is killed. Councils are not enforcing the law. It is bad enough seeing the road clearly at night from a bus in rural areas let alone spotting overhanging vegetation.
Pictures from Mick Gould’s FB page.
There is a clear government policy of removing vision from roads and roundabouts to slow traffic using natural vegetation growth.
When I worked on the council one of my jobs was to deliver hedge and tree cutting equipment and tractors all over the County on a flat bed multilift to wherever they were needed.
Needless to say the truck, tractors and cutting equipment, the jobs and the staff, and last but not least the actual council depots, no longer exist having been flogged off for housing development.
Yikes i hope no one was hurt. Doesn’t the number7 run from maidstone and out through wateringbury? Those roads before you get to 7 mile lane get narrow do wonder if some eejit was going to fast coming the other way and forced the bus into the bushes. However it happened i hope someone in the council gets their collar felt .
I’m sure bus companies used to cut back overhanging branches themselves using an open-top bus.
Harry Monk:
I’m sure bus companies used to cut back overhanging branches themselves using an open-top bus.
They did but now the councils won’t let them. As per Mick Gould’s fb page councils deny it is their responsibility. If you are lucky and they know who the land owner is then they might write to them asking for action but they don’t follow up with enforcement action.
I was going to post this issue, but you beat me to it.
The A442 between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth is appalling, in some stretches you have toove right over the centre to avoid smashing your mirrors, and a few spots even the side of the truck. Ther are now several occasions where I have stopped, to let oncoming traffic clear, before I can move out over the centre line to clear the vegetation. The road between Kidderminster and Droitwich is also getting worse.
Contacting the County Council is pointless, as they, as mentioned, deny all responsibility.
Here in Dorsetshire it’s very common now to have to drive over the line because the powers that be have decided that passing trucks can do their job for them by using mirrors and bodywork to trim the hedges.
I had a moan once and was told it’s down to the land owner of the fields etc.
Somebody should sort it out - it gets dangerous in places - car drivers don’t understand why you’re in their road space.
the proper cutting back where a tractor with a long back arm / rotary saw is chopping back a hedgerow at least 6 foot perhaps 15foot is rare to see -but i did see one this summer out at Tattingstone looked like he was doing a couple of miles per day .Reminds me i once cut down a huge bramble bush that was between a telegraph pole and a workshop i used a homebrew sickle and it worked great but one stem was a bugger to cut .Hack this way and that…long hard sweeps .no good then it suddenly dawned on me wasnt a bramble stem i was chewing through it was a 3 phase power lead from that pole to the building
Socketset:
Here in Dorsetshire it’s very common now to have to drive over the line because the powers that be have decided that passing trucks can do their job for them by using mirrors and bodywork to trim the hedges.I had a moan once and was told it’s down to the land owner of the fields etc.
Somebody should sort it out - it gets dangerous in places - car drivers don’t understand why you’re in their road space.
It is down to the land owner to PAY for the work. It is down to the council to force them to get it done or to do it and send them the bill. And that is what they are not doing.
Carryfast:
There is a clear government policy of removing vision from roads and roundabouts to slow traffic using natural vegetation growth.
When I worked on the council one of my jobs was to deliver hedge and tree cutting equipment and tractors all over the County on a flat bed multilift to wherever they were needed.
Needless to say the truck, tractors and cutting equipment, the jobs and the staff, and last but not least the actual council depots, no longer exist having been flogged off for housing development.
No it wasn’t you were too busy sorting parcels allegedly
justpassing:
Carryfast:
There is a clear government policy of removing vision from roads and roundabouts to slow traffic using natural vegetation growth.
When I worked on the council one of my jobs was to deliver hedge and tree cutting equipment and tractors all over the County on a flat bed multilift to wherever they were needed.
Needless to say the truck, tractors and cutting equipment, the jobs and the staff, and last but not least the actual council depots, no longer exist having been flogged off for housing development.No it wasn’t you were too busy sorting parcels allegedly
You do know about the matter of time.
Big difference between 1980-5 v mid 90’s.
On that note don’t know of many/any situations in which the council wasn’t responsible for roadside vegetation in range of vehicles using the road and where property boundaries generally didn’t stop well short of that.
Carryfast:
You do know about the matter of time.
Big difference between 1980-5 v mid 90’s.
Ohhhh, the irony…
Carryfast:
Big difference between 1980-5 v mid 90’s.
You stopped…
Eating crayons?
yourhavingalarf:
Carryfast:
Big difference between 1980-5 v mid 90’s.You stopped…
Eating crayons?
Ended my class 2 council driver days in '85 and with it running hedge and tree cutting equipment and tractors to wherever needed around the county on a multi lift flat.
As stated the equipment, drivers, trucks and the depots they were based now all gone.
Harry Monk:
I’m sure bus companies used to cut back overhanging branches themselves using an open-top bus.
I can’t be the only one on here who can remember the days of British Leyland before the days of the M40, used to see a double decker bus in BL colour’s with no roof cutting back the trees on the A34 so the transporters running between Oxford and Birmingham could get through with out damaging the cars on the top deck.
cav551:
Socketset:
Here in Dorsetshire it’s very common now to have to drive over the line because the powers that be have decided that passing trucks can do their job for them by using mirrors and bodywork to trim the hedges.I had a moan once and was told it’s down to the land owner of the fields etc.
Somebody should sort it out - it gets dangerous in places - car drivers don’t understand why you’re in their road space.
It is down to the land owner to PAY for the work. It is down to the council to force them to get it done or to do it and send them the bill. And that is what they are not doing.
That is correct but sometimes the landowner is the council. Some fields I used to cut when I was contracting, we only cut the inside and not the roadside. That was because the landowners boundary was the inside of the hedge, the verges belonged to the council so their resposibility and cost.
Add in that they now say hedges should only be cut between September 1st and February 28th, plus the latest ‘green’ bull that you should only cut every 2/3 years in rotation, brings in bigger problems. Personally a proper yearly trimmed hedge is more ‘green’ and enviro friendly than one that has to be hammered back every 2/3 years
I’m with you on this, just recently visited the UK after being away for four years and I couldn’t believe how overgrown everything was. Completely lost my bearings in Bristol at one point as the usual things I used to see at the roadside now completely obscured including signage. The lack of road markings was something else that I noticed as well.
