Trees Felled on Middle Meadow Walk, Edinburgh

28 Nov 2006 Ful­ly grown trees are being felled on Mid­dle Mead­ow Walk right now for Quar­ter Mile devel­op­ments — urgent action need­ed As if the injus­tice in clos­ing down a city-cen­tre hos­pi­tal to rede­vel­op into offices, shops and lux­u­ry flats was­n’t bad enough, now trees are being felled in the name of pri­vate pros­per­i­ty. … Con­tin­ue read­ing “Trees Felled on Mid­dle Mead­ow Walk, Edin­burgh”

Edinburgh tree protest 1
Edinburgh tree protest 2
28 Nov 2006

Ful­ly grown trees are being felled on Mid­dle Mead­ow Walk right now for Quar­ter Mile devel­op­ments — urgent action need­ed

As if the injus­tice in clos­ing down a city-cen­tre hos­pi­tal to rede­vel­op into offices, shops and lux­u­ry flats was­n’t bad enough, now trees are being felled in the name of pri­vate pros­per­i­ty. Edin­burgh City Coun­cil have giv­en per­mis­sion for the Quar­ter Mile devel­op­ers to fell 10 trees (7 ful­ly mature — one lime, and the rest Scotch Elm & Sycamore and 3 sap­plings which will be replant­ed) along the Quar­ter Mile side of North Mid­dle Mead­ow Walk. The felled trees, 6 so far and count­ing, will make way for pipelines to the devel­op­ment, shop fronts and a plaza.

Alarm bells were raised yes­ter­day when it was noticed that Mid­dle Mead­ow Walk had been closed for tree felling — 4 mature trees were cut down with one stump being at least a metre in diam­e­ter. This morn­ing action was tak­en by a group of around 13 con­cerned res­i­dents who dis­rupt­ed the felling by refus­ing to leave the area and link­ing arms around the trees to be felled. The felling was held up for an hour before the pro­tes­tors were moved on by police. The last-minute nature of the protest and low turn-out meant that firmer action could not be tak­en.

Remov­ing ful­ly mature, healthy trees on pub­lic land to fur­ther cor­po­rate inter­ests is wrong and adds insult to injury regard­ing the Quar­ter Mile dis­grace. It was appar­ent how­ev­er, that nei­ther the tree fellers, build­ing con­trac­tors nor police were hap­py about the trees being felled — but with their jobs and income at stake they felt oblig­ed to con­tin­ue.

It was unclear if all of the remain­ing trees would be felled today — if felling is con­tin­u­ing tomor­row take action, before all of our remain­ing green spaces are replaced by shop fronts and non-aford­able hous­ing.