The appearance of a barricade of concrete blocks alongside a row of mature trees on the Pietà seafront led many people to think that the trees were going to be felled.

The issue became viral overnight and people reacted strongly – with good reason when one considers that a row of beautiful Holm Oak trees along a wide street in Lija had been savagely felled a week or two before in order to make space for traffic.

Another barbaric act took place some years ago when 15 Aleppo pines were destroyed to make space for two petrol stations and a car wash. In both instances the destruction of trees came as a complete surprise. In the case of the Aleppo pines a permit was rushed through and the trees were horrifically uprooted with bulldozers before anybody had a chance to object.

The Lija tree demolition was justified officially by the slim excuse that the Holm Oak trees were not protected; therefore no permit was needed to destroy them.

This vandalism was approved by no less than the Environment and Resources Authority, the Environment Ministry and the Transport Ministry – all of whom seem to regard trees as useless impediments to ‘progress’. Such was the relief to hear that this row of majestic trees along the Pietà seafront was going to be spared that it escaped everybody’s notice that a mysterious “spokesman for the marina” added, as an afterthought, that two trees would be “temporarily moved”  to “protect them” and that they would “be replaced” as soon as the project, installing a pontoon, was completed. Moving trees? Whose leg is this mariner trying to pull?

The over-reaction of people to the appearance of a fearsome line of concrete blocks along the row of trees was correct. It is good to see that we are becoming sensitised to having such beautiful environmental enhancements arbitrarily torn down without notice.

This high level of suspicion must be maintained.  Our environment is too precious to be left in the hands of the government. Any suspicious activity must be immediately passed on to make sure we don’t get short-changed again. Hooray for social media, may they become a force to be reckoned with.

Finally, can the Environment Ministry kindly inform the public how the destruction of even two of these beautiful trees can be justified?