Mature Trees being cut down

Sar!

I would like to know if planning permission is needed in order to proceed with cutting down a significant amount of trees and more importantly what look like mature trees.

I ask because I live in a 3 yr old development in Portmarnock, Dublin and came home today to discover that a new development being built next door to ours has all of a sudden wiped out around 20 of these beautiful evergreen trees.

There are many reasons of course why this, I feel, was totally wrong not only for the obvious environmental issue but also for the now present lack of security it presents. (The site is completely exposed)

The reason I ask this is because tomorrow I plan on ringing Fingal county council to ask if there was permission for this to happen in that I am told that the construction company on site are in fact planning on cutting down all the remaining 200+ other trees in the row.

Can anyone help give some advice on this please as I cant believe that somene would be allowed to do this especially when there is so much construction nowadays in Ireland - we need to preserve these areas. :mad:

Alun

I don't know, but there seems to be a very lax attitude to this kind of thing in Ireland that wouldn't be tolerated in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. It really makes me sad seeing these beautiful trees just chopped down in the prime of their lives, and then usually just carted away as firewood.

The Hill Billy

Sar! - Check the planning section on your local authority website to see if the area was designated as one of the following:
Special Areas of Conservation (SACs)
Special Protection Areas (SPAs)
Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs)
Special Amenity Area Orders (SAAOs)

Or contact the planning enforcement officer of your local authority.

Sar!

Thanks Hill Billy - I did check this on Fingals site and there is no record of the planning for that site at all. (Basically its a site for social housing and its social housing that should have been put in our development but was sold on to another developer - all sounds very odd but surely they needed new planning permission for a new site?)

Furthermore I rang Fingals planning offices and they say they will have to investigate it as they knew nothing about it! They also put me onto the Parks people as apparantely they have to grant the permission and be told if the volume of trees being cut is that large. They also knew nothing about it and routed me back to the person who said they would have to investigate it.

All in all this is not looking good considering the trees are now disappearing as we speak and I am left waiting along with all the other residents watching the trees vanish day by day.

The Hill Billy

You may search for any planning applications lodged using this Map.

Check out the Planning Enforcement section if you haven't done so already. Particularly How to Make a Complaint. Complaints need to be made in writing. Take photos if you can & provide these with your complaint.

magicbastarder

from what little i can remember, trees which are within a certain distance of dwellings enjoy far less protection than trees which are at a safe distance.