Trees felled at King’s Park to ‘protect property’

Kings Park is 58 acres in extent and contains five listed heritage structures, including A listed Aikenhead House and its B listed stables, both designed by David Hamilton, ‘the father of Glasgow architecture’.

Historic Environment Scotland is assessing the park for designation as a historic landscape, as many of the ancient trees surrounding Aikenhead House (some are 150 to 200 years old) are part of the original landscaping of this Regency period private park, now a public park. There are at present only four designated historic landscapes in Glasgow.

In mid July a contractor for Glasgow Council began felling trees in Kings Park as part of a flood prevention project.

The contractor intends to remove at least 50 trees in the park as a part of the flood prevention work.

The trees taken down by the boundary wall were two horse chestnuts and two lime trees - no oaks were taken down by the wall.

Most of the felling was due to begin this week.

However, the council say the trees had to be removed to protect property.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “Unfortunately we have had to remove trees in two areas of the park to protect property from damage.

“In one instance the encroachment of trees on to the B-listed boundary wall was creating a risk of collapse and danger to the public.

“These trees have now been removed and the wall repaired by the council. Work is also being undertaken to deal with the recurrent threat of flooding at neighbouring homes that comes with rain water run-off from the park.

“The project involves the construction of a basin and a drainage channel that will allow for the collection and controlled release of rain water, which has required trees to be removed.

“We want to minimise as far as possible the number of trees being removed as part of the project to prevent flooding in the area.

“We will also be creating a new woodland on the former King’s Park golf course, which will lead to 5000 new trees being introduced to the community.

“In 2018 alone we planted around 7000 trees in the city.”