The PSOE spokesperson for the Madrid City Council, Reyes Maroto, criticized this Monday that the felling of trees for the expansion of Metro line 11 has begun “without the meetings” promised by the mayor of the capital, José Luis. Martínez-Almeida, one of which will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, Servimedia reports.
This is how Maroto spoke in the plenary session of the Madrid City Council, in which he accused Almeida of “covering his irresponsibility with dismissals” and said that they were expelled from the City Council’s investigation commission.
Maroto recalled that the Socialist Group has been warning about this situation for “many months” and denounced that the felling of 70 trees puts the UNESCO World Heritage declaration of the Landscape of Light at risk. In this sense, he addressed Almeida: “you will be responsible if they take away our World Heritage declaration.” Likewise, he regretted the dismissal of the head of the World Heritage Service of the Madrid City Council, Carmen Rojas, this morning in the midst of controversy over these fellings.
Almeida responded that Maroto seeks to “denigrate the image of Madrid” and explained that the meeting will be held on January 30 because that was the date chosen by the PSOE and told Maroto: “Are you hoping that they will take away the declaration of Heritage of the Humanity, but it is not going to happen,” he assured. Furthermore, the mayor criticized that the central government authorized the felling of 2,100 trees to expand the A-5.
In this sense, the mayor of Más Madrid Eduardo Fernández Rubiño, recalled that Rojas’ dismissal has been “imposed”, according to her own assessment. The councilor said that the Civic and Social Council should have happened “before you took out the chainsaw, because doing it later makes no sense.”
Rubiño recalled that the UNESCO declaration implies responsibilities for maintaining the declared property. Furthermore, he highlighted that these fellings are “avoidable”, that they affect trees “many decades old” and reiterated that “they are not replaceable.”
He added that he is in favor of the expansion of Metro Line 11 but that “when a work is necessary, the obligation of the administrations is to look for alternatives” and in this case he noted: “the alternative was to cut a lane for a few months.” Thus, he criticized the City Council for opting for the second option, cutting down trees.
