We don’t seem to be able to see the road for the trees

A GOOD tour guide can always be counted on to impart a titbit of, normally useless, information about a place that nonetheless sticks in your mind. And so it was on a visit to Jersey, many moons ago. As we travelled around the island, our guide informed us that each spring, officialdom takes to the highways with a stick three metres long to inspect roadside hedges and that if any trees or foliage are overhanging the road lower than three metres then, by law, the landowner must prune it back.

Our guide explained that the thinking was, rather sensibly, that roads should be kept clear to allow traffic to move along them.

On too many roads in this neck of the woods, it seems that this unremarkable idea is an alien concept.

Hedges, trees, ‘traffic calming’ measures – and now it seems Covidinspired schemes to allow pedestrians and cyclists to ‘social distance’ – seem to have been allowed to impede roads causing congestion, leaving vehicles to idle, spewing out fumes, and on rural roads having potentially dangerous consequences.

A week or so ago I was travelling behind a large goods vehicle on an A-road in south Devon. My car was constantly showered with twigs and other debris as the top of its trailer clattered into tree branches, bushes and other foliage allowed to encroach into the road from the hedge.

In this instance, fortunately it was only small pieces of debris, but the trailer could have snapped off bigger branches, which quite easily could have taken out my windscreen. On occasion, the driver had to straddle the centre white lines to avoid hitting thicker tree branches, which of course risks a collision with on-coming vehicles. Needlessly dangerous.

It is difficult to understand why councils seem to have such difficulty comprehending that roads work best – and are safest and cleanest – when clear of obstacles (and in good condition, too, but that’s a subject for a column all by itself!). Hedges and trees and the like of course look nice, but if they start to overgrow on to a major road – impeding road users, potentially endangering them – then that suggests it is time for a little pruning.

It seems neglecting roads, or messing about with them to make them less efficient and potentially dangerous is an affliction not exclusive to authorities in this region.

Reports in the national press suggest councils in many large cities have used powers given to them to deal with coronavirus with gusto, closing roads with little or no consultation all in the name of ‘social distancing,’ in the process causing traffic jams and increasing journey length and times.

With traffic in cities apparently still well below pre-lockdown levels, the authorities seem to possess a special skill in messing things up to make changes to roads and cause huge traffic jams as a result.

It is not terribly fashionable to say so these days, but the internal combustion engine continues to provide an efficient method of mass transportation. Provided with roads that allow it to progress efficiently, it is cheap and clean and provides freedom and choice for people at all levels of society. And with the era of the electric car coming, much sooner than many thought, the car, and the convenience and freedom it provides, is here to stay. So it is about time the authorities accepted this and reversed their neglect of our road infrastructure.

All I ask is that the council doesn’t start cutting the hedges around me this weekend. I have places to go and I hate being held up by the tractor as it crawls along, flailing the hedgerow.