Replace A35 fencing to stop animals getting onto road, urges Brockenhurst counciller

FENCES alongside the A35 need replacing or hungry animals trying to get at roadside grass could cause a hazard to motorists, a parish councillor warned.

Cllr Kevin Whittle sounded the alarm to Hampshire County Council's Cllr Keith Mans at the latest Brockenhurst Parish Council meeting.

Earlier this year the route was closed for three months while Holmsley bridge was replaced in a £5.5m project by contractors Knights Brown.

As part of the project, roadside verges further along the A35 were fenced off and roadside trees and vegetation cut back.

But Cllr Whittle said ponies had already got onto the route near Markway Inclosure, revealing he had put them back behind the gate one night after spotting them. He said further down the A35 there could be problems.

"The fences need replacing, and it needed doing yesterday," he said. "It’s where you drive along the A35 and you have cut away a lot of the vegetation and trees there, and taken away those verges for HGVs to stay in.

"When livestock gets a bit hungry and the grass gets nice and is growing on the other side of the fence oat the roadside, those animals will want that and do what they can to get to it – which they will do by pushing against the fence, and getting it over."

Cllr Mans said he would ask the HCC highways team to sort it out.