Local councillor seeks urgent funding to remove diseased trees

A scheme which will support farmers and landowners impacted by ash dieback has been welcomed by Cllr Laurence Fallon, who has also called for urgent Government support to allow local authorities to remove trees where they are creating a danger to road safety.

Ash dieback is a disease that is killing ash trees across Europe and it is proposed that €5,000 per hectare will be paid to impacted farmers who clear ash sites and re-establish new forests.

“I welcome the funding that is to be allocated to try to find a solution to ash dieback on farms and small forests,” stated Cllr Fallon. “Many farmers and planters had invested substantial funding in the planting of ash with a view to having a pension fund later in life. They have now been decimated because of forests being ravaged by ash dieback, with up to 80% of trees being killed.”

While welcoming the funding, Cllr Fallon also called on the Government to make additional funding available to deal with the safety implication of ash dieback. “A serious issue remains from a safety point of view and that’s the huge number of ash trees hanging over public roads, which are now dead or in a state of dying. Many of them have root damage or structural decay and they are waiting to fall onto the road during the next storm.

“The cost of removing these trees is too high for any local authority, in the interests of public safety, the Government needs to establish a fund which could be administered by local authorities to assess and remove the trees as quickly as possible.

“Failure to do so quickly will at best cause major disruption to traffic with trees falling onto public roads but at worst could result in death or serious injury with trees falling onto pedestrians, cyclists or motorists.

“Ash dieback is not going to recover in the near future so it is urgent that this serious danger is dealt with immediately,” concluded Cllr Fallon.