Council urged to come clean on reason for axing city centre tree
BIRMINGHAM City Council should stop making up excuses to chop down the city centre’s oldest tree and admit they just don’t like it, a leading business figure has claimed.
Mike Olley, manager of the Westside Business Improvement District (BID), which represents businesses in and around Broad Street and Brindleyplace, claimed the council was going too far by blaming the Islamic State terrorism threat for the decision to fell the London Plane Tree.
In a blistering attack Mr Olley, a former Labour councillor, said: “Their excuses are getting more and more ridiculous. First, it was in the way of the Metro line, but that was debunked. Now, it is a threat to national security. When that one is debunked, what reason will they come with next?
“I’m sure the contractors could build round it if that was what the council wanted. But it seems to me it’s an old knobbly tree which doesn’t look attractive and spoils their nice new designs for Centenary Square so they want rid of it. Why can’t they just come clean to the public rather than make up this rubbish?”
Mr Olley stressed, however, that local businesses welcomed the £10 million refurbishment of Cen- tenary Square. Earlier this month, city council deputy leader Ian Ward said the reason the tree had to go was because concrete benches, which are designed to repel a Berlin-style terror attack, have deep foundations and would disturb the roots. The benches cannot be resited without limiting space in the revamped square. He said: “As I have made clear, the edge of the water feature to be installed in Centenary Square as part of its revamp is designed as a counter-terrorism measure and will require deep foundations which would affect the tree’s roots. We fully understand the concerns expressed regarding this tree and no-one wants to remove a tree unnecessarily. “It should also be remembered that 59 new trees will be planted in place of the 25 scheduled for removal.”