This article is from page 20 of the 2011-06-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
COILLTE and smaller forestry contractors may be forced to pay for damage done to roads as a result of transporting trees in rural parts of the county.
An estimated 200,000 tonnes of timber was transported on the county’s roads last year, with this figure expected to treble in the coming years. According to councillors at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, roads in rural areas of North and East Clare have been destroyed in recent years as a result of the transportation of large amounts of timber. The Clare People understands that Clare County Council has entered into negotiations with Coillte with a view to working on some sort of road management plan for the forestry companies and a means of gaining reparations should damage be done.
“They are removing timber out to roads and these roads are not able to take the weight of the timber being removed. I think that Coillte need to provide us with a five-year plan where trees have to be felled or thinned out. They should at the very least supply a list of what roads they intend to use and these plan should need to be ap- proved by the county engineer,” said Cllr Michael Hillery (FF).
“This problem is going to get worse as time goes on. I know that right now roads are being damaged all over the county and I think it will take a lot of money to put these roads back to a level that will be acceptable to the local people.”
At present just over 13 per cent of the area of the county is covered in forestry with half of this being managed by Coillte. Commenting on the matter, Cllr Michael Beagley (FG), said that the current situation was ‘hell on earth’ for local residents.
“The level of support that Coillte give is often tempered because they have the excuse that other forestation in taking place along those roads,” he said.
“Quite a lot of private operators are growing trees in Clare and we should not give them [Coillte] an excuse to pay less than they should, but at the same time they shouldn’t have to pay everything if other private operators are in place. This is hell on earth to the local residents and the council needs to put something in place to deal with this problem, in a comprehensive way.”
According to the Council, negotiations are currently ongoing between Clare County Council and Coillte.
“We have found that in recent times there has been better engagement between ourselves and Coillte. In recent times Coillte have allocated some money to roads in the county,” said a council spokesperson.
“It may not be possible to have a one size fits all approach [for Coillte and the private operators]. We are at the early days of trying to formalise something and it makes sense to talk to the largest operator and I think that under these circumstances it would be easier for other operators to come on board once we have this formalised.”