Environmental groups continue bid to save Clonmel town centre trees

Members of  two Clonmel-based environmental groups SuirCan and Crannach are continuing their campaign to seek an independent expert evaluation of the trees in Gladstone and O’Connell Streets.

 All 47 trees are due to be removed under the Urban Design Plan drawn up by Cork-based RPS Engineers and signed off by Tipperary County Council. 

Young replacement trees are promised in the new plan, but the campaigners say that the removal of the existing mature trees is unjustified and that furthermore, no expert evaluation has ever taken place to see if they can be incorporated into the design.

SuirCan and Crannach insist that recent worsening predictions about catastrophic climate breakdown should call into question a plan which was conceived over four years ago and which completely ignores the contribution of mature trees to street shade, shelter and flood water soakage.

TREE REMOVAL

 A large number of people expressed reservations about the tree removal in their submissions to the planning process in 2019 but the council has consistently refused to engage a tree expert to review the decision. 

This is despite a Red Ribbon protest and an online petition which attracted over two thousand signatures as well as a number of meetings with council officials.

SuirCan note with interest that Tipperary County Council has recently started work on drawing up a Tree Strategy for Clonmel.

SuirCan members have contributed suggestions to this new document but point out that two existing tree strategies in Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown and Dublin City Council both enshrine the core principle that the removal of existing mature trees should be a “last resort” when all alternatives have been thoroughly examined. 

At a meeting of the Clonmel Town Forum on November 29, committee members  including business owners in the town centre endorsed a further request to Tipperary County Council to engage an independent expert on this matter. 

To date no response has been received from Tipperary  County Council officials.