Minister of Works and Engineering Alex Scott has hit back at critics after a storm erupted following the cutting of roadside trees and hedges.

Mr. Scott said: "I did not anticipate that the debate about the work Works and Engineering road crews have been doing this spring to get roadside vegetation under control would become so heated.'' MPs, senators, conservationists, landscapers and members of the public have condemned the action which some have claimed is "total madness''.

However, Mr. Scott said: "We do this kind of work all the time, but especially at the start of the growing season in the spring. And it seems we have to explain ourselves over and over again almost every year. "My road crews are not pruners. It is the law -- the department of Works and Engineering Act 1984 -- that roads must be kept clear, so that motorists and pedestrians can use them safely. The responsibility for keeping roadside vegetation under control is squarely on the shoulders of the owners of the property bordering the road.'' Mr. Scott said that when property owners fail to maintain their hedges road crews cut the vegetation back. And he said they had the right to cut back to a distance of two metres from the edge of the road, although he said they do not normally go that far. He also said that his department can and sometimes do send a bill to property owners for the work they carry out.

Mr. Scott said: "The road crews are a small group, there are a lot of roads in Bermuda and cutting vegetation back is only one of their jobs. They cannot afford to cut a little bit here and a little there, only to have to go back in a month when it grows out and cut it again.

"If road crews are going to cut, they cut well back, well enough to last for several months. We take advice from our counterparts in the Parks Department in relation to the depth of cutback of certain trees, depending on their growth rate.'' Mr. Scott said that although Bermuda was an affluent community, he did not see the sense in investing alot of money in a staff of trained pruners who would go around the community maintaining vegetation bordering public roads.

"It seems to me that would be using the public purse to subsidise people who really don't need help,'' said Mr. Scott.

And he said if property owners would simply live up to what is plainly their responsibility, the problem would not exist.

Mr. Scott also wanted to clear up the "inaccuracy'' concerning the royal poinciana tree at the entrance of Fairylands.

He said: "The poinciana tree at the junction of Serpentine and Pitt's Bay Roads is not a victim of out-of-control pruning. It was struck some weeks ago by a tractor trailer. The trunk of the tree and its lowest branches were broken just above where we have cut the broken limbs off. We hope the tree will survive the incident, otherwise we might have simply taken the whole thing out of the ground.''