a cedar threatened with felling, a harvest collects 19,000 signatures
A Cyprus oak, 13m high, overlooks the district of Sept-Deniers in Toulouse. It may be his last moments of life. To prevent this, the inhabitants are mobilizing. Banners, ushers, petition, they will not let go.
It all starts at the beginning of January. “I saw this shovel razing all the trees, it challenged me.” Katia, a resident of the Sept-Deniers district in Toulouse, is surprised by the felling of trees as part of a real estate project. She then goes to meet the site managers. On the plans, all the trees could not be brought down, but the reality is quite different.
Trees ‘cut down by mistake’
“I was told that the ones that weren’t supposed to be shot initially were done by mistake. And that the cedar should also be razed.” The inhabitants appealed to bailiffs who came to see “infringements and non-compliance with the building permit”explains Thomas Bunel, president of the Sept-Deniers neighborhood committee.
The project that threatens the oak is a long-standing project. Initiated a few years ago, an appeal had put it on hold. Today he is leaving. The program, led by Toulouse Métropole Habitat, provides for the arrival of 48 housing units by 2024, as well as infrastructure such as a crèche, a senior restaurant, a multipurpose room and a commercial space.
“These requirements must be respected, otherwise it is not the project for which the town hall has granted a building permit. Looks like blueprints have no value”, he continues. In a translated letter to the mayor “supposed to enforce the permit“, the chairman of the neighborhood committee asked”to take an interruptive stoppage of work for the time to ascertain the facts“. Mail remained unanswered, “and I’m not surprised”.
“We are not opposed to the project, but we must preserve what is there. We just want that tree to be protected and stay there. We can all live together”Katya explains.
She then decides to launch a petition to prevent this situation. It collected more than 19,000 signatures. “It has been there since at least 1955, it is part of our heritage and we want to preserve it. He’s not sick, he’s beautiful.” For another resident of the neighborhood, “this project calls into question the future of this tree. However, it is not located next to a building.“
What the locals don’t understand is that”since 2017 it is still on construction plans and now they happen to realize that it is in the way.“On the outskirts of the Clos de Job site, banners are springing up on the balconies and on the gates of the site: “Save our cedar”; “Yes to the nursery, to the senior space, to housing. Yes to the three trees already there, as promised”; “Respect your commitments, keep the cedar”.
On the side of Toulouse Métropole Habitat, the communication department affirms that “following an alert from the city’s green spaces department, this subject is the subject of a study in order to verify its state of rooting. Weakened, it could indeed present a risk to public safety in the event of a fall. TMH also claims that ten trees, species of tall stems, will be replanted.