Green Neighborhood: Investor's crime in a yard in Podgorica, a tree cut down for which the authorities had banned felling

The informal group of citizens, Zeleni Kvart, announced today that a tree, for which professional services had banned felling, was cut down with a chainsaw in the yard behind the "Zija" hotel in Podgorica.

"We invite you to come to the yard behind the Zija Hotel today at 13 pm, to join us citizens in witnessing the crime committed by the investor. In the middle of the night, at 2:15 am, someone came and used a chainsaw to cut down a tree that professional services had banned from being cut down. It is a cypress tree that is over 70 years old and about 30 meters tall. If someone had happened to be on the path leading to Gorica, they could have been killed," reads a statement from the informal citizens' group Zeleni Kvart.

They said that the investor did not have permission from the chief city architect and the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property to build on this plot, and that despite this, they had attacked this area for the second time.

This happened on Beogradska Street in Podgorica, whose residents, at a protest last Monday, said they would not allow a residential and commercial building to be built on the green area.

Mašković: I expect an urgent reaction from the authorities due to the night-time felling of trees in Belgrade

The President of the European Union Councilors' Club in the Capital City Assembly, Miloš Mašković, announced that he expects an immediate reaction from the authorities due to the night-time felling of trees on Beogradska Street.

"This morning, at around two o'clock after midnight, the felling of trees was initiated on Beogradska Street. This was done despite the opposition of citizens, without valid documentation and despite the decision of the chief city architect rejecting the investor's request for construction. This behavior represents a conscious and planned disregard for institutions and the will of citizens. The felling of trees in the middle of the night is not a coincidence, but a deliberately carried out act that must have consequences," Mašković wrote on the social network Iks.

He added that he calls on the city administration and all competent authorities to react immediately, suspend further activities in the field, and determine responsibility for this act of vandalism.

"We cannot allow someone to demolish under cover of night what citizens have guarded for years. This is not a conflict over an urban plan. This is a matter of legality and basic decency. Citizens have done everything they could through institutional means. Now it is the turn of the authorities to prove that they exist," said Mašković.