Bus route tree wrangle compromise

A 150-year-old chestnut tree has already been pruned after safety fears

A campaign to prevent Edinburgh City Council pruning trees in a private garden to make way for buses has ended after a compromise was reached.

Residents from Landsdowne Crescent said they had "bowed to the inevitable" and allowed the trees to be cut on the condition it is done later in the year.

There was concern that pruning the trees during the summer months would expose them to disease.

A bus route is being diverted through the area during tram work in Haymarket.

The plans to cut back dozens of trees, which line Landsdowne Crescent and neighbouring Grosvenor Crescent, to make way for the traffic were stalled by residents over the past few weeks.

But they agreed to the cuts after a meeting with officials.

'Sadness and anger'

Former judge Lord John McCluskey, who lives in Landsdowne Crescent, told the BBC Scotland news website that the decision was reached on the understanding it was handled "sensitively and as late as possible in the growing season".

Lord McCluskey said there was still concern about how the pruning of the trees, some of which are about 150 years old, would alter the look of the area.

He said: "It's undoubtedly going to make the appearance poorer. The hope is that in the longer-term it will improve - it has in the past."

He added: "There is a good deal of sadness and anger that trees that have stood there for such a long time are suddenly regarded as a public danger because the council wants to run buses down the street."

A 150-year-old chestnut tree has already had rotting branches cut back after the council declared it unsafe.