Hundreds of people gathered this past weekend in the Arganzuela park to protest against the felling of 240 trees, which will take place as part of the works of the new Metro station in Madrid Río, within the expansion of Line 11. This is an action proposed by the regional administration, with the authorization of the City Council of the capital. In all the works for this extension of Line 11 – which also contemplates the construction of the Comillas station – the total number of trees to be felled will be around a thousand. In the heat of these citizen protests, the opposition parties in the consistory have wanted this weekend to charge against the Executive of José Luis Martínez-Almeida. From Más Madrid, the deputy Eduardo Rubiño assured yesterday that the mayor “is choking on the war that he has launched against green areas.” The PSOE candidate for mayor, Reyes Maroto, described this felling as “nonsense.” This question will come to the municipal commission for the Environment today with two questions formulated in this regard by these political parties.
It so happens that these actions are common when the administrations must carry out works in an environment where there are green areas and, therefore, trees. In fact, The Government of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE and Podemos) has also carried out logging so far in the city of Madrid. Through ADIF and Cercanías (public entities dependent on the Ministry of Transport) a total of 1,193 trees have been felled. Of these, 1,050 correspond to ADIF works – in the surroundings of Atocha, Chamartín and Méndez Álvaro, among other points – and 143 more trees derived from Cercanías works, in the Ramón y Cajal Station, on Pío XII avenue or in San Christopher of Los Angeles. In all these cases, the Government of Sánchez requested authorization for felling from the Madrid City Council, that is, the same procedure now used by the Community of Madrid for the extension of Line 11 of the suburban.
The minister and candidate Maroto also criticized yesterday that this felling is going to be carried out without consulting the neighbors. However, logging in Madrid Río, for example, will take place after change the initial layout with the aim of building the new Comillas station, which was a neighborhood claim. In fact, the “informative study for the expansion of Line 11 of the Madrid Metro. Section: Plaza Elíptica-Conde de Casal» was submitted to public information and allegations were received with this requirement to build the station that would serve the Comillas neighborhood. A petition promoted by Cibeles, but also claimed by the neighborhood associations of the Barrio de Comillas, Moscardó and Carabanchel Alto, the Comillas Women’s Group and the FRAVM.
