Man accused of causing damage to public road

A CARNEW man has appeared in court accused of causing criminal damage and damage to a public road near his home.

David Brownrigg, Croneyhorn pleaded not guilty to the charges but guilty to a third charge of threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour at Croneyhorn, Carnew on September 1, 2016.

Executive Engineer with Wicklow County Council in Baltinglass Municipal District, Dermot Graham said that earlier in the year on July 28, a crew was deployed to carry out pre-planned surface dressing works on the R725 from Croneyhorn to Deerpark.

He said that this was approximately a 1.9km stretch of road and works were to take place across both lanes. Mr Graham said that works were completed opposite the defendant’s house and when the crew were to start the section near his home, they could not as Mr Brownrigg had parked vehicles outside it.

Garda Anthony Russell was called to the scene to see if he could get Mr Brownrigg to move the vehicles and a discussion took place. In the end, the council vehicles were demobilised.

On Septemebr 1, a crew was dispatched once again, to complete the remaining stretch of road surface dressing, which the court heard was approximately six metres by 3.5 metres.

Mr Graham said a small piece of specialist plant was to be used for this section.

After the work was completed, Mr Graham told the court, Mr Brownrigg drove his van out from his farmyard in front of the council vehicle and prevented the workers from spreading the remaining chippings.

Mr Graham told the court that Mr Brownrigg attempted to open the driver door of the council vehicle but was unable to do so. The vehicle then departed from site and the court heard that Mr Brownrigg then parked on the freshly tarred road.

It was outlined that he the drove up towards Mr Graham in ‘an aggressive manner’ and asked said that he ‘had no right to carry out works on the road’.

‘I responded to say that works were being carried out to maintain the road and he called me a smart bastard’, Mr Graham said.

He added that Mr Brownrigg then turned his van around and came back and subjected council General services supervisor Mr Pat Scott to ‘intense verbal abuse’.

Mr Scott became overwhelmed with emotion as he told the court that in 30 years of working with the council in the Carnew area, he had never been spoken to in such a manner. The court heard that Mr Brownrigg then parked his van and brought out his tractor with loading shovel and began scraping the newly laid tar and chippings off the road, works which cost approximately €5,500 to complete.

Solicitor David Tarrant said that his client would argue that the council works were ‘getting closer and closer to his property boundary’ every time they were carried out.

Mr Tarrant said that according to Mr Brownrigg in April of that year, a temporary line was marked along the road, marking his boundary, and agreed by all parties, but that the works went past that line.

He said that any road scraped by the loading shovel was on Mr Brownrigg’s land.

After the State’s case concluded, the matter was adjourned to November 14 for the hearing the continue.