Smyth seeks wildlife bridges on roads

Bridges for badgers, foxes and other wildlife to safely cross roads have been called for by Green Party member, Cllr Hazel Smyth. Although wildlife tunnels have been provided along motorways, there is no provision on minor roads.

Speaking at a meeting of the Westmeath Transport Strategic Policy Committee in December, Cllr Smyth, chairperson, reported seeing “a lot of road kill recently” and wondered what the council could do to make roads more wildlife friendly.

Cllr Smyth said that in other countries, there “little bridges almost for animals so they can cross the road safely”.

Director of services, Barry Kehoe, said that the council had put in tunnels along the M6 to facilitate wildlife, but he was not aware of other measures that could be taken on non-motorway roads or of a precedent for that in any other part of the country. Cllr Smyth volunteered to send him on the information.

Illegal tree felling and hedge cutting were other issues that concerned Cllr Smyth and environmentalist, Alison Hough. Cllr Smyth called for the appointment of a biodiversity officer for the county to oversee all such matters.

The meeting was considering a report from Melanie McQuade, heritage officer, on projects carried out during the year and funding for 2022.

Funding opportunities open for 2022 are the Built Heritage Investment Scheme aimed at private owners of buildings that are protected structures and/or are in architectural conservation areas. This allocation has increased to €126,000 for 2022, up almost €30,000 on the previous year, with grants of up to €15,000 available and 50pc match funding. The Historic Structures Fund is geared towards buildings in community use and stream one offers up to €50,000 grant aid and up to 80pc of costs.

It can also be awarded to historic shop fronts and there is a smaller fund of up to €10,000 for vernacular buildings that are not listed as protected structures.

Stream two is for larger projects with an award of up to €200,000 and it carries 50pc match funding. The deadline for applications is January 31, 2022.

The community monuments scheme has also opened for applications and it is 100pc grant aided.

There will be €5m nationally for three streams of funding – capital works, preparation of a conservation plan, interpretation and/or improved access. To be eligible, it must be a recorded monument and include an input from an archaeologists and other relevant professionals such as a conservation architect and/or engineer. February 15 is the deadline.

Looking back on the year, Ms McQuade said they had implemented a management plan for invasive plant species at Belvedere, treated Japanese knotweed and removed 5,000sqm of laurel.

Peter Cuthbert, horticulturalist, has agreed to sponsor native pollinator friendly tree species for planting in the cleared area in the new year.

A survey of thatched buildings was carried out and a video was made featuring one of the thatched houses surveyed by Bronagh Lanigan, the heritage consultant working on the survey.

The council supported the Westmeath field names recording project, and Dr Aengus Finnegan, the co-ordinator made online presentations on the project looking back over results and names collected to date.

Two videos were made on hedgerows featuring local farmer, James Ham from Moyvore, National Parks and Wildlife ranger, Therese Kelly, and representatives from Teagasc and from the Hedge Laying Association. All video presentations are available on the council’s heritage Facebook page and YouTube channel. Twenty five wetland sites were also surveyed with funding from the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

A barn owl survey was completed and produced “a very positive response”. It was carried out by John Lusby of Birdwatch Ireland. Prior to the survey, there was a record of just one pair of breeding barn owls in Westmeath and the survey has now identified 14.

Ms McQuade explained that there was funding for preparation of biodiversity plans for two areas of council owned land – at Coolure Demesne near Castlepollard and at Kerrinstown near Killucan. Pollinator infomercials were aired on Midlands 103 and articles on pollinator friendly gardening featured in the local newspapers.

Just over €300,000 was allocated to community monuments and nine projects in this county benefitted. Kilbixy, Ballynacargy, Athlone town wall and the old jail at Fore got funding for conservation works.

Funds were also provided for conservation work at the back of the civic buildings and Prince of Wales hotel. Ms McQuade explained that there was a large ash tree growing from the wall and causing structural damage. “We managed to conserve 40 metres of the wall there and that involved some tree felling, a lot of stabilising and some rebuilding of the wall,” she said. The work was funded by the Heritage Council.

There was funding for preparation of four conservation plans – the partially collapsed tower house at Monaset near Rahugh, the 17th century fortified building – Court Devenish in Athlone, St Owen’s Church, Ballymore, and Killafree Church, Castlepollard. Under the interpretation funding stream, the No. 1 gun battery in Athlone received funding for investigative excavations to inform further conservation works, and Mayne bronze age track way, which featured in a digital interpretation that will be available online shortly, received funding.

Two historians in residence, Dr Paul Hughes and Dr Ian Kenneally, were appointed for five months each. According to Ms McQuade, they produced a wealth of output in the form of blogs, videos and podcasts, all of which are available online.

An allocation of €15,000 for a creative project with community engagement went to the big house project – family memories of life in and around the big houses. Film makers have produced three documentaries due for release soon.

The digital exhibition to celebrate the centenary of the first Everest expedition led by Howard Bury of Belvedere House was launched at the end of September and can be viewed at www.everest1921.com. Creative Ireland funded some heritage projects – oral history training, know your locality and climate change talks, all online.

In response to Ms McQuade’s presentation, Cllr Smyth asked that the council apply for some of the €2.1 million biodiversity fund announced recently and use it to appoint a biodiversity officer for the county and to make hedgerows and road verges more biodiversity friendly.

She complained of widespread felling of mature trees and said that a number of people had contacted her over the last year, “very upset, very disgruntled, very saddened by mature trees in their areas being cut down without prior notice”. She acknowledged that there may be circumstances where trees must be felled urgently for safety reasons, but claimed that “in many cases that is not the case”.

“We should provide notice to the local community that these trees are to be removed and why, so that they know the reason and are not calling me up in tears, upset that a mature tree that has stood there for decades has now been removed without any prior consultation,” Cllr Smyth said.

She also recommended that an online forum be provided for people to report tree felling and road kill directly to the council.

Cllr Smyth welcomed the news that Westmeath is still in the running for UNESCO funding that could benefit places like Uisneach.

She went on to suggest that passengers’ bags and shoes should be inspected for invasive alien species at Irish airports to stop any further invasions, considering “the damage they can cause to our land, our animals”.

Alison Hough, environmentalist, said that “on a regular basis trees that are important around an area are disappearing without notice and it is very upsetting particularly when biodiversity is so important to people now”. She called for a register of tree felling notifications and asked that it be made public.

Ms McQuade said that she thought up to 10 biodiversity officers would be appointed nationally, but stressed that details of the scheme had not been issued yet. She added that she was not sure if this was going to be a new scheme or act as a top-up to the biodiversity plan. “We already have some funding under that stream for 2022 and it may be a top-up or it might take a different structure with more community scope, but again I can’t say because I haven’t seen the outline details,” she added.

She pointed out that the invasive species that are of concern are already well established in the country so it is too late for the sort of measures called for by Cllr Smyth in respect of those species, but she agreed that “certainly, there are other species and maybe animal species that could be introduced and could be of concern”.

Ms McQuade said that tree felling licences are issued by the Forest Service; it’s not a function of the council. She explained that not all tree felling requires a licence, for instance if the tree is a certain distance from the road or within 20 metres of a building, no licence is needed. “If there is concern that trees are being felled illegally, it can be reported to the Forest Service so if someone is unclear in that, I could put them in touch with the Forest Service,” she suggested.

In relation to making verges more biodiversity friendly, Mr Kehoe said the council has minimised the amount of verge cutting and trimming that they carry out and it is now done for safety reasons only and that has been the case for many years. “Beyond that I’m not sure what we can do to make hedgerows and road verges more fauna and flora friendly. Wild animals tend to cross the road and unfortunately, sometimes they do get caught by cars, but how we can reduce that I just don’t know,” he said.

Cllr Smyth said she would send him information on what they are doing in other countries where they are building “little bridges almost”, “a kind of a green space for them to cross the road safely”. Some of the funds available could be spent on piloting a scheme here, she said.

Ms Hough said hedgerows were a hobby horse of hers and called for an end to pesticide spraying. She was annoyed that the hedgerow videos did not feature any of the environmental organisations that are active in Westmeath. She complained of the lack of public awareness that it is illegal to cut hedges at certain times of the year and claimed that people are under the misapprehension that it is okay to cut hedges in towns or on farms any time of the year.

Ms McQuade apologised that environmental organisations had been omitted from the hedgerow videos. She said, however, that reference is made in the first video to regulations regarding hedge cutting.

Mr Kehoe said the council has, in recent years, minimised the amount of glyphosate spraying, confining it to estates that have opted to be sprayed and to largely one spray per annum on the main thoroughfares within the towns. Sometimes, and it’s rare, they have to spray a second time if there is a proliferation of weeds later in the year. They don’t spray on the old rail trail, for instance, or in parks or playgrounds.

Mr Kehoe said the search for an alternative to glyphosate is ongoing and he is hopeful that there will be results in 2022 when it can be discussed further. In the meantime, if members have any practical ideas or suggests, by all means bring them to us, he said.

Cllr Smyth said Dublin South Council had come up with an alternative and that she would send him the details.

Mr Kehoe said he would be very interested to hear what it was.