Application to cut protected trees at historic site

A TOTAL of 10 trees which are the subject of a Preservation Order could be cut down as part of an application to construct an agricultural barn and store on the Old Mountfield Road in Omagh.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council will have to decide on the application which was submitted last month.

The trees are located around the historic property at Glenree, Omagh, with the oldest of them being associated with old agricultural field boundaries and noted on the earliest Ordance Survey maps nearly 200 years ago.

In a submission as part of the application to have a small number of the trees removed, Dr Philip Blackstock, independent arboricultural consultant, recommends that the Tree Preservation Order on the lands surrounding Glenree is modified.

He said that this would maintain protection of the original gardens and associated hedgerow trees and the beech shelterbelt along the eastern boundary of the site.

“A review of the merits of these trees concludes that, although the trees and woods have a significant presence in the local landscape, it is the mature, historical landscape that has most merit,” he said.

“The conifer plantations and associated scrub growth somewhat detracts from this original landscape and it is further noted that the conifer plantations have now a commercial value.

“The protection of the conifer plantations and associated scrub and sapling growth should be lifted to permit commercial harvesting of the cnifer crop and to free up the original historic landscape surrounding these listed buildings,” Dr Blackstock’s report added.