Dublin City Council has defended the felling of mature London Plane trees in O'Connell Street on the basis that they would be replaced by new trees under a four-year-old plan to rejuvenate the city's main thoroughfare.
Ms Anne Lannon, the council's press and information officer, said yesterday there had been few enough phone calls from members of the public protesting against the tree-felling. "We've had a lot more calls from journalists."
She said there was some alarm that the street would be left devoid of greenery. "But once we explained that it was part of the plan for O'Connell Street, and that we would be replacing the existing trees with up to 200 new ones, people were happy enough."
The 1998 O'Connell Street Integrated Area Plan indicated that the London Planes were to be replaced. "Due to the height and extensive foliage of trees, the street facades are hidden from view, creating two spatial corridors in the street," it said.
"Trees can be too easily regarded as a palliative to soften or hide buildings. Such intended effects can negate the potentially rich qualities of dignified urban settings," according to its authors.
"The functions of trees in the street include modulating and softening the built environment, and giving expression to nature in the city through seasonal variations of colours and textures," they said, adding that trees should also form part of "a coherent public image".
Spatial definition was to be achieved in O'Connell Street by "a well-organised geometric pattern", with large columnar trees being planted on widened footpaths on both sides of the street and more closely spaced smaller trees planted on the central median.
Until two years ago, the facade of the GPO could not be seen from the opposite side of the street because of the trees which stood on the central median. Once these were removed, the entire facade became visible for the first time in several decades.
The proposed "square" in front of the GPO, consisting of granite paving slabs and street setts, is to be delineated by "espaliered [cropped in the French style] trees and sculptured lighting" to create an "urban room" outside the portico of the historic building.
According to the planners, the geometry of the new tree planting should not translate into an experience of rigidity on the ground. Instead, it would be "rhythmical as one moves through the street" amid the "ordered continuity and repetition of the tree-planting".
Though the espaliered trees in front of the GPO would form a "wall of space" around it, their transparency would allow an awareness of the spaces beyond. "Smaller trees in key locations similarly create human-scale enclosure for sitting in comfort," the planners said.
"These spaces and other key focal points will be further modulated by the use of distinctive flowering trees. The large trees on the footpath will be single species to visually link the street and its diverse elements."
The plan, which was drawn up by a team headed by Mr Dick Gleeson, deputy chief planning officer, also specified that "unity, linkage and articulation will be achieved through a minimalist palette of tree species - limes, planes, rowans and flowering crab apples".
Yesterday Mr Gleeson said three or four times the number of existing trees would be planted in O'Connell Street on a phased basis. "Of course we regret the loss of trees, but the fact is that the street wasn't working and needed radical intervention."
