The Department of Infrastructure is cutting back on cutting back.

As part of the ongoing need to reduce budgets, it's again going to do less hedge and verge trimming this year.

It's estimated that by encouraging landowners to take more responsibility for their own hedge maintenance, it'll save the department between twenty and fifty thousand pounds.

Maintenance of hedges has always been the responsibility of the landowners, but for many years the department has cut them routinely for the benefit of the Island community.

Highways Director Richard Pearson says safety will be the main focus of attention from now on, and there are certain things the department will still deal with: