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Dublin City Council plans to chop down 300 trees in Merrion Square Park

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dublin | environment | other press

Monday October 21, 2013 19:58

by T

The latest news from Dublin City Council is that they plan to cut down 300 mature trees in order to improve Merrion Square park. Apparently it is all in the name of giving it a facelift!

The council don't seem to realize that one of the most attractive features of the park is the 300 or so mature trees. Do they not realize it is a tourist attraction as it is? Who knows what their logic is but some lucky Tree Surgeon company is going to get a big windfall here which begs the question. Were the advisers behind this outlandish decision people who were going to gain by it in some way ?

The story has been reported widely in the last week or so in the press.

From the Independent:

The park is extremely popular with residents and is often visited by tourists.

In an event to mark Ireland's Presidency of the European Union earlier this year, visitors were invited to the park to place handkerchiefs on a tree in tribute to deceased or unwell loved ones.

The so-called Touring Tama, or “hanky tree” was displayed in the park for a period during the summer.

But plans drawn up by officials could see many trees of its like chopped down.

A council spokesman refused to be drawn on the exact number up for the cut.

Dublin City Council intends to prepare a conservation management plan for Merrion Square Park,” he said.

“It's planned to provide details on this to the November meeting of the South East Area Area Committee. No decisions have been made on the plan at this stage but further details will be available following the November meeting.”

It does all seem a bit radical and presumably expensive. Surely there are more pressing causes given the state of funds nationally these days?

If this is something that is likely to irk you then you should probably contact the council directly since they are likely to make decisions on this quite soon. Separately you could fill out their Parks Questionnaire which is running from Sept to 15th Dec but don't expect the input of that to feed into the input of the above. See https://consultation.dublincity.ie/parks/parks-questionnaire