A RETURN “to Famine times when we’re spraying the potato” has been teased by a Shannon councillor if a move away from herbicides is made within the local authority.
Citing the efforts made and work required surrounding footpaths and roads in housing estates across the Shannon Municipal District, Cllr John Crowe (FG) noted “there seems to be a problem arising where the grass is growing at a point where the roads meets the kerbing. I am requesting that the engineer considers remediation measures for this problem and solutions for future developments”.
Senior executive engineer in the Shannon MD, Tom Mellett acknowledged that this was a countywide issue. “Currently policy is to use EU approved herbicides to control the growth of weeds along road edges where they are problematic. Shannon MD uses a product which reduces the volume of chemical used by a factor of 20 and minimises drift of the spray. The Municipal District staff routinely target areas where grass is emerging and causing damage to the road’s infrastructure,” he explained”.
Speaking at a recent meeting of the Shannon MD, Cllr Crowe outlined, “This particular motion affects us all. No matter where you go in our Municipal District, you can see the difference with the footpaths and the kerbing, between the kerbing and the road joining them the amount of grass growing up between those particular areas”.
He said that by the Co-Op in Clonmoney, the height of grass growing up between the kerb “is breaking up the tarmacadam on the footpath or on the road, it is causing major damage, it will be very costly for the Council, they will have to repair the footpaths and the roads”. Crowe suggested that measures be included in future planning application’s to limit the growth of the grass.
Support was voiced by Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) who observed, “we’re lucky Tom is still using the spray, some members of the Green Party in Clare County Council don’t want us using spray at all, we could be back to the Famine times again when we’re spraying the potato”. The Shannon representative believed the problem escalated when the roadsweeper was not active enough, “it is all about resources”.
According to Cllr PJ Ryan (IND), the problem hinders the aesthetics of certain localities. “It looks very unsightly, it looks like there is poor maintenance in the area, it gives a bad impression. There needs to be something done to stop this from happening, there’s a big pull back on people using spray”.
