‘Undesirable’ who cut down tree blocking his CCTV cameras sparks Council debate

A COUNCILLOR has told a story of how an “undesirable” person living in his municipal district area chopped down a tree outside his house because it was blocking the view of CCTV cameras he had had installed.

The story came out at a Meath County Council meeting during debate on a notice of motion tabled by Fine Gael Cllr Alan Tobin and Sinn Fein Cllr Aisling O’Neill calling on the Council’s transport section to put in place an application form of advisory to ensure that home owners in residential estates that are taken in charge with grass verges and associated landscaping cannot alter those verges without the permission and consultation with the Council. He suggested fines for breaches of the code.

He said he knew of one individual who was regarded as “undesirable” and cut the tree to give better view for his cameras “so that they could continue to do the activities they were trying to do within the area”.

There were people who would make a statement about this when asked by the Tidy Towns Committee but then they would be identifying themselves in making such a statement.

There didn’t seem to be any consequence for taking down mature trees in a lovely housing estate that everybody owned because it was on the common verge outside the house.

He said it caused annoyance and risk among residents on housing estates. The problem was that when these things happened people often went to residents’ association committees and held them responsible for the destruction of trees.

Cllr O’Neill strongly agreed with Cllr Tobin and a suggestion was made that the council write to the relevant minister to see if progress could be made on the issue.