Fianna Fáil councillor for Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim, Mary Bohan has called for county councils to be given more power to stop timber hauliers from extracting timber on rural roads.

The councillor told Agriland that she believes planting and felling should come under "planning laws".

Bohan said: "I’ve been asked if road restrictions or weight restrictions, might be put in place, or that hauliers would be asked to reduce the size of the loads they bring out, which is not economical for them.

The councillor compared the situation to the regulations needed to connect wastewater facilities to new build houses.

She said: "There’s no rule that the council can implement. Compared to if I’m going to build a house, and I want to get permission to connect to water and sewage, I have to pay a deposit to cover any damage I might do to the road. That’s in law, it’s part of planning.

"It’s a very ad-hoc system in place for the plantation and extraction of timber. I think that planting and felling should come under the planning laws," Bohan added.

According to the councillor, a "tighter system" should be put in place to prevent damage being done to rural roads.

"Over the years, damage has been done to the roads and in some cases, there has been agreements between both sides to get money towards fixing it. It should be a more tight system," Bohan said.

"It’s a public road, but those little side roads are not make for 20t or 30t. There’s barely room for two cars to meet on some of them. On a lot of them, if you met a car you’d have to reverse back.

"Bringing these massive lorries of timber out, it’s not fair on the people that live there all the time," the councillor added.