A campaign to save over a dozen mature trees in Portaferry from being axed to create 54 additional parking spaces has been backed by nearly 65,000 people in an online petition.
he Portaferry Ropewalk Improvement Scheme was agreed by Ards and North Down Borough Council in October and a planning application has been submitted.
According to the council, the project close to Church Street, is expected to “bring significant investment” to the seaside town, with the creation of the car parking spaces, installation of a footpath and walking route and additional toilet facilities.
However, the council said the trees — some of which are 150 years old — would need to be removed “to facilitate this improvement scheme”, claiming these will be replaced with 20 native trees and an additional replanting scheme at a nearby site.
The move by the council has been contested, however, with the Portaferry ‘Stop The Chop’ campaign opposing the plans and alleging a lack of consultation with nearby residents.
Cathie McKimm is one of those behind the campaign alongside Lily Devlin.
Ms McKimm explained plans for the additional car parking at the ropewalk site were not part of the village plan and rejected the idea additional parking is needed in the area, with the group posting daily photos on social media appearing to often show an empty car park.
The group also dispute there has been sufficient consultation and discussion with those living in the area.
Stressing they aren’t against improvement for Portaferry, Ms McKimm hit out at councillors for rejecting a compromise proposal that was put to them.
“I stood under the trees one day and looked at them and thought: ‘These trees are so old’,” Ms McKimm told the Belfast Telegraph.
“We started the campaign, started to write to councillors and people started to support us.
“The biggest travesty of it all really is that the good thing was the council appeared to be listening at the beginning.
“They met us, they let us make a presentation at the end of June. A local architect here, in his own time, did an environmental planning assessment.
“That opened the door for the council to say they would look at other options. They said they would do an alternative scheme which would incorporate the trees.
“At the end of October comes the scheme and we were all in agreement with it, it was a win-win for everyone. Three trees were going to go.
“The compromise scheme goes before the council on October 27. Lo and behold, the councillors decided they weren’t going to accept this alternative scheme, even though there wasn’t much difference in price.
“The question for the council is did it not make sound environmental and community sense to accept the alternative scheme?”
The council said a professional ecological survey “concluded that the proposed project is not anticipated to negatively impact roosting bats or the local bat population.”
“The professional ecologist also confirmed that there is no evidence of red squirrels, pine martens or badgers residing in or around the trees,” they added.
“He also noted that the habitats are generally of low conservation value as the area around the trees consists primarily of amenity grassland that is subject to regular mowing.”
The group however said other surveys carried out showed “all of the trees bar one or two are suitable for retention”.
“There has (not been enough) consultation about the trees and their response to that was that there is no legal requirement to do so,” Ms McKimm added.
“If you are a local citizen and you just watch it happen and turn a blind eye, it happens. We have decided enough is enough, it is our conservation area and it is being wrecked.
“Local people should be involved at the outset. We’d like to be involved. There are some brilliant ideas you can do there, respecting the nature. People come to Portaferry as it is an outstanding natural area of beauty.
Ards and North Down Borough Council added: “The viability of our local economy depends on a healthy society, both of which rely on a sustainable environment. Sustainability occurs when all three work in balance with each other and council is committed to achieving this balance.
“Subject to successful planning application, council hopes the scheme will be completed late summer/early autumn.”
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