Municipal authorities in Alexandroupolis are cutting down trees within the urban fabric in order to build an indoor gym, while in the surrounding area of Evros wildfires are raging out of control for the 12th consecutive day.
The action has triggered an outrage among the local community that says the municipality of Alexandroupolis is destroying “the last lungs of green in the urban fabric.”
The fire nightmare in Evros apparently leaves the representatives of the local government “unimpressed” who citing a contract dating back to 2016 decided it is now the right time to proceed with their construction plans in the middle of a 400-tree forest in Phyrorio Park in the east of the city
The latest developments with the destructive advance of the fire in Evros and around Alexandroupolis have shocked citizens who are mobilizing in order to save the last left trees.
With a demand to save the small forest of more than 400 trees, protesters of the Citizens’ Movement to Save the Grove of Alexandroupolis Nursery noted that “there is no longer any luxury of losing a single tree.
They called members to the community for a gathering and a protest early Wednesday evening, August 30.
The decision to build one of the last lungs of Alexandroupolis had provoked the reaction of all opposition factions at the meeting of the municipal council that took the relevant decision, while at the same time hundreds of citizens with a written request to the municipal authority requested the change of location of the indoor gym to adjacent wasteland of the Municipality.
Local news website altherthess.gr reported that on Tuesday, when the contractor started cutting the first trees, residents of the area gathered in the grove preparing their next moves, deciding to file a legal appeal against the decision.
On Wednesday morning, citizens entered the area through the fence and managed to prevent the cutting of trees.
“We want Alsos Phytoriou to live, the state and investors are plundering the nature,” residents of the area and members of the “Citizens’ Movement shouted in rage.
The response of the Municipality of Alexandroupolis
For its part, the Municipality of Alexandroupolis, responding to the rumors about the cutting of 440 trees, stated that the financing of the construction of the gym has been secured by the Region of North Macedonia and Thrace since 2016, and its location had already been decided and determined by the previous municipal authority. .
Then, after enumerating the “obstacles” encountered by the authorities until the start of the construction work, the municipality of Alexandroupolis emphasized that it was necessary to start the work 50 days after the signing of the contract, with the first phase including the marking of the ground and the “removal of some trees, the number of which by no means corresponds to 440”.
However, the municipality’s admission that “the trees that need to be removed are only 30” makes a sad impression, implying that the specific number is small, when thousands of acres have turned to ashes and even the 30 large coniferous trees that will be cut down they give breath to the inhabitants of the city.
PS In this amoral country we call Greece, we have the local and central rulers we deserve…
I am lost for words with the foolishness, stupidity and insensitivity of these fools in charge. Of course it boils down to money and greed the credo of today ! With our world under the worst threats ever they sail on seemingly blind the nemesis that is coming. God help us all.
Yes, Nemesis. I am waiting for her retributive justice. Surely the day must be near. May God and the gods save us soon, as we hurtle towards total chaos.