Dangerous blind bend....

crackcrack30

guys,

Theres a dangerous blind bend on my narrow road.....I have several entrances on the road and have to Navigate this bend daily.

The ditch is my own & I keep it cut but I still cant see around it as the ditch is up on mouneded earth.......

I had the council out about several issues on this narrow road and they see no danger with any of the bends on the road....no help..

In thinking of removing this ditch back about 6 feet to at least allow traffic to meet and pass saftely...........I'd put down a hard surface where ditch was pushed back/removed

What are your(s) opinion on me doing this???

reilig

crackcrack30 wrote: »

guys,

Theres a dangerous blind bend on my narrow road.....I have several entrances on the road and have to Navigate this bend daily.

The ditch is my own & I keep it cut but I still cant see around it as the ditch is up on mouneded earth.......

I had the council out about several issues on this narrow road and they see no danger with any of the bends on the road....no help..

In thinking of removing this ditch back about 6 feet to at least allow traffic to meet and pass saftely...........I'd put down a hard surface where ditch was pushed back/removed

What are your(s) opinion on me doing this???

If your REPS/Aeos etc allows I see no issue with removing the ditch to allow for extra view.

However, if you lay down a hard surface that vehicles can drive upon then you leave yourself open to a claim if there is an accident caused by the surface (eg loose chips, scrape to car etc).

Best to just take out the ditch and erect a fence - it is not your responsibility to widen the road, nor do you have a right to widen it.

chickenfarmer

Dont ! The council have to do it for you. They can deem it to be unapproved development and you can face a fine and be made put it back. Reason I know this ? Enquired about doing something similar to help my planning permission. Councillor told me to forget it. He told me of a couple that I know who are also going for planning permission and they widened the road and got into a lot of trouble over it.

Rovi

No matter who actually owns what, I'd be VERY shy of doing anything that might impact directly on the structure of the public road or its 'usability' by third parties.
I think you'd be leaving yourself wide open to being pursued for damages if something (anything!) were to happen on that particular piece of road and the effected (affected???) parties were to discover that someone other than the county council/NRA had made changes or modifications to it.

We resolved a similar 'issue' years ago by writing to the county council stating our deep concerns that a ditch was obscuring a sightline and that we felt that it was inevitable that there would be a serious, possibly tragic, traffic accident there sooner or later.
This put our concerns on the permanent record, and left the council in the position that they could not proclaim ignorance of the issue if a tragedy DID occur.
The ditch was removed within a couple of months.

Birdnuts

AFAIK you can remove a section of ditch at this time of year for proven health and safety reasons - but as the lads here pointed out, I'd clear it with your REPS planner and the CC first.

Justjens

I'd leave well alone, a case was taken against a landowner by Limerick Co Co for removing a ditch, the judge ruled it had to be reinstated.

Now it is necessary to get PP for putting a new gateway onto a public road.

crackcrack30

I see where yer coming from.............
I might burn the ditch off with brushkiller for say 10 yards both sides of the bend..........level off the top of the mound/spoil its on to 3-4 ft and put a strand of wire and a few stakes on top of the mound for my own stock........

What would ye think of this idea????

Justjens

Just improve visibility for road users, but more importantly, for yourself!

If taking the top off it accomplishes this then that's the way to go....

NewBeefFarmer

we had a hedge, grew to about the hight of your average tree hedge, telephone pole height.
then got the saw job done on it, u know the hedge cutter thing with blade. . .

now im using the hedge cutter on it, and every year it gets lower, tree butts are rotten away. .
its now waste hight. . .

as posted already nothing wrong with pulling hedge down and putting a fence up.. .

growing out causing traffic problems /blind corner etc. . . is well justified.

1chippy

same crack on our road at home, we have a very problematic neighbour aswell. so we ( a neighbour and ourselves) just hired in a machine and driver. we started at four in the morning had the ditch out by seven and fence up by lunchtime. about 200m between our own and neighbours. the only thing i would recommend is not to put in the stone verge as reilig said it leaves you open for claims. all the neighbours delighted with it even the awkward one said it was a good job. The council have been out on other issues and have said nothing about it.