Al-Portel – Association for the Defense of the Environment and Cultural Heritage of São Brás de Alportel accuses the City Council of confusing “requalification with destruction”, due to the felling of the few trees existing in the central section of Avenida da Liberdade, in that town.
According to the association, the melias (Melia sourach), already with "very significant size", will now be replaced "by juvenile specimens of plum trees which, from the point of view of street afforestation, constitute an inconceivable option".
Vítor Guerreiro, vice president of the São Brasense autarchy, explained to the Sul Informação that the felled trees were "damaged" and were already "very old". The operation progressed this Wednesday.
“In recent months there have been two situations of falling trees that hit cars that were parked. If they were in progress, they could even have caused an accident,” he added.
In addition, said the mayor, “the roots are raising the pavement and the City Council has already had to pay two or three times for the repair of the rims, which they crashed into. They were also affecting the sanitation system. Services often had to remove roots that were clogging the pipes».
In order to try to calm things down, Vítor Guerreiro added that “one of the trees, which is smaller, is not damaged and we are going to try to transplant it”.
In total, the operation involves felling and uprooting “four trees” and replacing them with “garden plums, with red and green leaves. Let's plant 15 to 20 trees. We will also uproot the shrubs that are there to replace them with Sevillian roses, which create a compact hedge and when they are in bloom they turn a very beautiful red».
The vice president of the Chamber also stresses that “we had to choose a species that will never have the same size. We ordered trees 2,5 meters high. Let's plant them alternately, four red leaf and four green leaf, to give a more beautiful effect. The crown can also be trimmed, creating different shapes».
Despite these explanations, the Al-Portel association expresses its "perplexity at the recent operation of "requalification"" and accuses the municipal management of outdoor spaces of "remaining frozen in a primitive time, in which such spaces are understood as what is left of the buildings, and vegetation, fundamental material for the quality of the landscape and the environmental health of urban agglomerations, continues to be seen as a nuisance, and to be managed in a perfectly inconsistent manner».
Al-Portel, which says it was alerted to the case by the "numerous complaints received by its members", admits that "no protected species was destroyed, no law was violated, there is no irregularity".
However, he stresses, «only a glaring and worrying lack of sensitivity was demonstrated, materialized in the elimination of striking aspects in the image of the main artery of the Vila. Furthermore, the role (even if residual) of these few trees in the circulation of air masses in this (now) wind corridor was eliminated».
The association adds that “a Municipality that supposedly bets on the environment and quality of life as structural axes of its development does not destroy the only elements of amenity in the landscape of the main urban axis of Vila de São Brás de Alportel. Overnight, Avenida da Liberdade, the town's visiting room, was transformed into an asphalt channel, confined by concrete, without any identity or architectural or landscape quality».
Al-Portel also regrets what it considers to be a “complete lack of respect for the role of vegetation in urban and environmental quality”, shown by the City Council of São Brás, a disrespect that it considers to be reflected in the choice of the replacement species.
«It is also regrettable the option for felling, and not for adequate pruning of existing trees. And considering that sticks replace trees, it is really embarrassing».
The association stresses that “the trees now planted will not only generate a lot of waste (it is important to remember that they are fruit and deciduous trees, placed in the center of a traffic lane), but will also grow. In other words, they are condemned from the outset, in the current model of municipal management of outdoor spaces».
As for the requests for the felling of trees that the vice-president of the Chamber says it has received, Al-Portel argues that "even when faced with requests in this regard, and even in an election year, a local authority is mandated to manage public affairs, from the perspective of the common interest, not the sum of some particular interests or requests».
Responding to the dispute, Vítor Guerreiro said only: "we know that there will always be a dispute, but the situation had to be resolved."
Text de Elisabete Rodrigues com Hugo Rodrigues
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