Councillors want Coillte to foot bill for truck-damaged roads

Local authority members want both Coillte and privately-run forestry operations to pay for damage by pounding trucks to rural roads in Cork county.

Several members of Cork County Council expressed concern at the serious state of “tertiary roads” near commercial forests.

Councillors claim many roads have deteriorated because they were not built to accommodate large trucks fully laden with timber.

At a meeting in Cobh yesterday, members of the council’s Bantry and Skibbereen electoral areas demanded action, saying the local authority couldn’t afford to repair the roads.

Cllr Danny Crowley (FF) claimed Coillte and private forestry companies were making a lot of money from harvesting timber and, as such, should be obliged to pay for any damage done to public roads.

“Some of them are in a very poor state of repair,” he said.

His party colleague, Cllr Frank O’Flynn, said forestry companies should be obliged to make a contribution towards road repairs.

Cllr Alan Coleman (FF) said a policy was needed to cover all commercial forestry operators as, in the next few years, 50% of tree felling will be undertaken by private companies.

Some councillors said the clearing of forests could also cause other problems which the council needed to address.

Cllr John O’Sullivan (FG) said clearing large areas of forestry quickly could lead to flooding and landslides.

He urged the council’s Environmental Special Purposes Committee (SPC) to look at these issues and see if it could issue guidelines and permits which forestry operators would have to follow to ensure their works didn’t result in such problems.

Cllr Kevin Murphy said the council should contact the minister in charge of forestry, Simon Coveney, as soon as possible.

“Big lorries are not fit to travel small rural roads. Coillte shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this,” Cllr Noel O’Donovan (FG) said.

However, Cllr Kevin O’Keeffe (FF) added words of caution. “We have to be mindful of the amount of direct and indirect employment Coillte provides, especially during this recession,” he said.

It was decided the council’s transportation SPC will shortly report back to the full council on the issues.