Residents upset after trees chopped down

ICONIC cherry trees which have lined a city street for decades have been cut down, despite the protests of 
residents.

Angry homeowners hit out at council workers carrying out the tree surgery yesterday, and claimed the trees were being given the chop as the colourful blossom fall was too much work for street cleaners.

But officials insisted the work was part of a long-running restoration of the area which would return the original 19th century garden layout.

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Householders in Gardner’s Crescent in the West End were shocked when they looked out yesterday morning and saw workers felling the trees.

While some residents had raised objections with the council over a year ago, when plans to chop down the trees were first mooted, others said they had never been informed.

Caroline Evans, a project manager who has lived in the crescent for ten years, said: “It came as a complete shock. I didn’t get any notification.

“I’m going to complain to the council, but it will probably be too late. Short of lying down in front of the bulldozers I don’t know what I can do.”

Gail Bryden, an aromatherapist who has lived in Gardner’s Crescent for more than a decade, said she and other neighbours had written to the council in the past objecting to the plans.

“It is part of a big regeneration of the crescent, which will be lovely, but destroying these trees is a terrible shame.

“When the blossom comes out it is beautiful, but that’s why we think they are cutting them down, because it creates too much work when it falls.

“We’ve been told they are replacing them with lime trees, which might not shed petals but are not particularly pretty.”

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Gardner’s Crescent dates from 1822 and is part of Edinburgh’s West End Conservation Area. It is currently undergoing a £250,000 two-year restoration project funded by the council, Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Scottish Power and other corporate organisations.

A city council spokeswoman said: “We’ve been working closely with the Friends of Gardner’s Crescent on the landscaping works that aim to transform the area. The works were given planning approval in March 2011 and earlier this year two hundred residents were informed by letter that work would soon be starting.”

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