By Róise Collins

DONEGAL County Council has felled a 90-year-old Sessile Oak tree in Ballyraine, despite local residents’ desperate pleas.

The tree, located between the entrances to Ballyraine Park and Orchard Grove, was removed late on Tuesday night to make way for a new cycle path, which is part of the Letterkenny Active Travel Project.

In the past year, a local campaign to save the tree gathered massive momentum.

The old native Oak tree along the Ballyraine Road which was removed to make way for a greenway and cycle lane. PICTURE: Brian McDaid.

Signage of support against the tree’s removal had become a permanent fixture, planted in the soil where the tree’s ancient roots were spread.

When the issue first hit the headlines last September, the council stated that it was its intention to harvest the acorns from the oak tree prior to removal and replant a number of them in the local area.

But yesterday morning, as the stump stood solemnly, the tree’s acorns were scattered all over the road.

As shock and sadness spread throughout the local community and beyond, the council issued a statement defending their action.

“The decision to remove the tree was not taken lightly and was only done so out of absolute necessity,” the council said.

Local elected representatives say they were not aware of tree cutting that took place in Ballyraine on Tuesday night.

“To go to these types of work in the dark of night in the name of Donegal County Council is wrong in so many ways,” said Cathaoirleach of the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District, Cllr Ciaran Brogan.

“Whoever initiated this type of action is not helping the good work we all worked hard to achieve in this area.”

He stressed if proper procedures were followed then the National Roads Design Office (NRDO) would not have to carry out this act in the middle of the night.

Local councillors had a roads workshop last Monday, where they discussed the progression of the Active Travel scheme in the area.

Cllr Brogan said he has submitted a question to the next meeting of Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District, taking place on Tuesday, to request an updated written report on the scheme.

Elsewhere, Mary T Sweeney, who has been a leading voice in the campaign to save the historic oak tree, said she finds it “incredulous” that local councillors were unaware that the felling was to take place on Tuesday night.

“If any of them were interested in the longevity or the significance of that tree then they would have asked if they were saving the tree during the meeting.”

She stressed that local history is being eroded because of a lack of accountability by public representatives.

“Why have they not any pride of our architectural and environmental heritage?” she asked.

She also spoke strongly of what she said was a ‘flawed’ consultation process.

Ms Sweeney said the oak tree, which had the ability to live up to 500 years, should have been a “beautiful legacy” for the town.