An overgrown patch of vegetation along the N24 in Carrick-on-Suir town centre has deeply angered one of the town’s councillors, who described it as “like a bloody jungle”.

Sinn Féin councillor David Dunne sharply criticised the wild condition of the road island at the end of Kickham Street at the July meeting of the Carrick-on-Suir local authority.

“Please don’t follow me and say that this is wild planting. We have enough fields for that,” he said, adding that it looked “disgusting” and would “spoil the tone” compared to the recent renovation work on the N24 in the city.

It was one of a number of issues relating to the recently refurbished N24 that Councillor Dunne raised with the council at the district meeting.

The €6.8 million Carrick-on-Suir road project has improved 3.2km of the N24, which runs through the town of Carrick-on-Suir, from the outskirts of the town on Clonmel Road to the other end of Pill Road in Tybroughney.

The project included a number of new safety measures, the construction of a new road surface and landscaping.

Councillor Dunne stressed that overall the upgrade work on the N24 had been first class, but expressed dissatisfaction at the delay in fixing some minor problems that had arisen.

In addition to the overgrown vegetation at the end of Kickham Street, he also pointed to problems with water accumulation after heavy rainfall around speed bumps on the N24 at Cláirín and Lissadell.

Councillor Dunne asked the Council administration if there was a budget and staff to maintain the new planting plans along the N24.

In relation to the overgrown planting at the end of Kickham St, District Engineer Denis Power said he would look into this and see if the planting could be changed. On the other issues raised by Cllr Dunne, the District Engineer stressed that he was in regular contact with the N24 Carrick Pavement Scheme contractor regarding outstanding issues and there was a list of works that the contractor needed to redo.

Councillor Dunne asked how many times these issues had to be reported before they were resolved. Mr Power promised to contact the contractor again to resolve the issues.