No environmental impact assessments were carried out before Stormont contractors took chainsaws to trees along Belfast’s River Lagan, we can reveal.
The Stranmillis community is still reeling from the loss of mature trees on the popular walking route with many hitting out at the lack of consultation before they were felled.
Infrastructure bosses say they notified residents of works as part of the £17m Belfast Tidal Flood Alleviation Scheme in a letter and on social media.
But no mention of trees being felled was made in the January 7 correspondence about the works.
Asked if any Environmental Impact Assessments has been carried out on the scheme from Stranmillis Weir to Belfast Harbour, DfI said they reached the conclusion “an EIA was not required” for either the land or marine works.
South Belfast Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw said: “It is completely unacceptable that the trees and hedgerows at Stranmillis were removed without any environmental impact assessments.
“Northern Ireland will continue to rank among the world’s worst countries for biodiversity loss until Executive Departments start taking their environmental responsibilities seriously.
“Assessing environmental impact should be the minimum that is expected and all Ministers should begin acting as stewards of our wildlife.”
Belfast man Colin Shaw has hit out at the lack of communication with the community and protection for nature.
“People are just scratching their heads that they are removing trees to stop floods,” he told us.
“It makes no sense to anybody and not only did they not do an environmental impact assessment they had absolutely no communication - people still think it’s because of the 5G masts.
“In the absence of information you get conspiracy theories - it’s absolutely counterproductive if they don’t bring the community with them and they don’t make it part of a resilience campaign.
“They could have put up a notice that says this is part of a scheme to save homes from flooding, this is an image of what it might look like in the future.
“A lot of people would go ‘that kind of makes sense’ - but they didn’t do any of that.
“There’s a complete lack of environmental protection for our surroundings,” added the 55-year-old.
“We don’t have an independent environmental agency [and] there’s no rights for nature.
“If we don’t fight for this it will all end up in a wood chipper.”
Belfast Lord Mayor Kate Nicholl read a letter from young campaigner Mollie-Rose McCarten about her sadness at the trees lost in Stranmillis at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
The 10-year-old said in the letter: “I am worried they will cut down the remaining trees and if they do Stranmillis will never be the same.
“If they continue this they will break many hearts.”
The Department for Infrastructure said last week it had removed 14 trees on the Lagan Towpath at Stranmillis with four more earmarked, works then continued at Queen’s Quay this week.
Some of those earmarked for the axe appear to have gotten a temporary reprieve.
Green Party councillor for Botanic, Áine Groogan, told Belfast Live: “DfI seems to have finally taken heed of the upset and anger their actions have caused by not going ahead with the planned removal of these 11 trees until they explore an alternative that has been proposed.
“This is welcome, but I only wish they had done this a number of weeks ago when we first asked them to pause the works. Maybe many more trees and hedgerows could have been spared.
“It is vitally important that DfI now fully engage with local communities and work with us to ensure that damage to trees and wildlife is minimised during the course of these works.”
A DfI spokesperson said: “As part of the on-going preparatory works only the trees and shrubs necessary to facilitate the construction of the works are being selected now for removal, in advance of the bird nesting season.
“Some of the trees currently identified as at risk are not being removed at this stage until the detailed design confirms requirements.
“The project team will continue to progress detailed design to finalise the optimum solutions at each particular location giving due consideration to the specific site constraints.
“However, the removal of some trees and shrubs is unavoidable to facilitate the construction of this important project which will reduce tidal flood risk to over 1500 properties within Belfast.”
