Cork County Council imposes laws on roadside crash tributes

The new policy is to be introduced primarily to make it safer for relatives to visit the sites.

Major floral tributes, soft toys, glass and illuminations are to be banned from roadside memorials to loved ones who died in car crashes in County Cork.

Major floral tributes, soft toys, glass and illuminations are to be banned from roadside memorials to loved ones who died in car crashes in County Cork.

In future all grieving families will have to apply to the local authority to get permission to erect such monuments.

A new policy is to be introduced by the county council to standardise roadside tributes, primarily to make it safer for relatives to visit the sites.

From now on, families will have to conform to certain criteria for such roadside memorials, such as not exceeding 600mm x 600mm wide and 150mm deep, plus they cannot be illuminated in case they distract drivers.

In recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of such monuments erected and the local authority is now introducing a new policy to standardise them - in particular to ensure that grieving relatives are safe when they visit.

The bylaws state any memorial shall be located at the back of the roadside verge, along the line of the boundary wall, fence, hedgerow or ditch.

Where the boundary "is of solid construction, such as a wall, the memorial may be affixed to that structure, so that the maximum level of the top of the memorial is 1m, above the surrounding level".

However, where the road boundary "is not of solid construction, such as hedgerow, fence or drain, the memorial may be freestanding".

But the bylaws add if the freestanding memorial is of stone or metal it must be mounted at ground level. 

"If mounted above ground on a post or posts, it shall be made of wood and the maximum height of the top of the memorial shall be 1m over surrounding ground level," the rules state.

In addition, landscaping of the memorial with permanent or semi-permanent fixtures, including kerbing, is not permissible.

The bylaws state that floral tributes should not exceed a 1m square and the council "reserves the right to remove excess floral tributes if deemed a safety issue or receives justifiable complaints from the general public".

Also, no roadside memorials will be permitted along, or in proximity, to any section of motorway or dual carriageway, as these are high-risk locations unsuitable for pedestrians.

Meanwhile, if the council needs to widen roads where they are located, the family will be given the opportunity to relocate them elsewhere.

Existing roadside monuments don't have to comply with the new criteria, but if they are damaged and families want to replace them, they will have to conform with the new bylaws.

Independent councillor Declan Hurley, who is the head of the Cork County Council committee which drew up the bylaws, said he welcomed the adoption of the new policy by his fellow council colleagues.

He pointed out future applications will be administered by local roads engineers in each of the county's eight municipal districts, because they will have “local knowledge” about where it is safe to erect them.

“The safety of all road-users is paramount, as well as of those placing, attending at or maintaining memorials and the purpose of this policy is to try to provide a clear statement of what will be allowed on public roads under the control of Cork County Council,” Mr Hurley said.