Bray residents left outraged after council tractor destroys communal green

Residents in a Bray estate are infuriated after a tractor driven by a contractor working for Wicklow County Council Council “churned up” and destroyed their communal green.

Homeowners from the Deerpark estate in Bray awoke recently to find tread marks and long patches of grass torn up across their local green, which is a popular spot for dog walkers and a play area for local children.

Describing his disbelief that the heavy machinery was near the rain-soaked green in the first place, Deerpark resident Sean Kenna explained that the community were shocked by the damage and that the local authority had not issued an explanation.

“Wicklow County Council put a tractor out on it, churned it all up and left it in an awful state,” Mr Kenna said. “They cut the grass there every now and again, but they must have had a new contractor on because that tractor should not have been up on the grass.

“I don’t know whether he got distracted and started milling around the place or if he just went on to it and didn’t care. They ruined the green and just left it there in a shocking state.

“This is a popular area for kids to play football and somewhere people walk their dogs, especially during the summer,” he added.

“My daughter sent a load of photos to the Wicklow County Council engineer, but we didn’t receive any explanation back from them – that is simply not good enough.”

Acknowledging their receipt of Mr Kenna’s photographs, a Wicklow County Council spokesperson responded to a request for further information by saying that the recent deluge of rainfall was proving challenging for their contractor.

“Grass cutting in Deerpark estate is undertaken by Wicklow County Council’s appointed contractor,” they wrote.

“Unfortunately, the recent wet weather, together with the high rainfall throughout the winter months, has resulted in soft ground conditions in a number of housing estates.

“This is proving challenging for the contractor, with some areas having to be left uncut where the ground is visibly saturated.

“Where machinery encounters soft ground, it generally results in tyre marks and a tighter cut, as is evident in Deerpark. However, it is not always possible to identify these in advance of commencing works.

“As we enter summer, the ground conditions should improve, and the grass will recover.”

Dissatisfied, Mr Kenna reacted to the correspondence, saying: “That is not good enough, and it’s just an excuse as far as I’m concerned.

“They should have known that with the conditions on the ground, you can’t be driving onto grass like that with a heavy machine. Sure, the farmers are not even letting their cows out!

“At the very least, they should have put topsoil on it, re-seeded it and restored it to something like the way it was before.”

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