HOUSING campaigners in Finglas say they’re furious after the felling of trees from a site earmarked for modular housing earlier this month.
Locals called gardaí and pleaded with workers to delay the felling of a tree on June 10 to give them time to contact council officials, but to no avail.
“We asked them to wait for a day or two because we’re in negotiations with the council and we wanted to show them that it shouldn’t be taken down,” a resident told Northside People.
“All we’re asking for is that they protect the tree line.”
The tree was one of several on land next to the site at St Helena’s Drive earmarked for modular housing to house homeless families currently living in emergency accommodation.
Some of the trees back onto local homes and locals say they provide a layer of protection and privacy.
Residents claim they didn’t take out any protection orders for the site as they were assured trees would not be damaged. But council officials told Northside People they provided locals with drawings of the site showing 11 trees that were to be taken down highlighted in red.
However, when workers surveyed the site they found another tree was badly decayed and also needed to be removed.
“Dublin City Council are currently carrying out enabling works at the site,” a council spokesperson said.
“These enabling works require the removal of a number of trees and a plan showing the trees that were to be moved, was given to residents before the work started.
“In the process of setting out the road, one tree that was not on the drawing had to be removed.”
The council now plan to meet with local residents early next month to discuss a revised boundary treatment and replacement trees.”
Local community activist, Cormac McKay, told Northside People he took a sample of the tree and sent it to a botanist to verify if it was rotton or not.
“It’s very important that decisions aren’t being made without the consent of the residents,” said McKay who ran in the last general election as a candidate for Direct Democracy Ireland. “It’s also very important that we have participatory planning as well as development.”
Progress on the Finglas site has been slow to date and it’s unclear when work on the modular homes will get underway.
Last month, Dublin City Council issued a number of residents with official letters claiming they had prevented access to the modular homes site and warning them that their “actions” were “unlawful”.
Locals insist that while there were protests at the site, access wasn’t blocked.
