No Real Proof Trees Were A Threat: Govt Adviser

An adviser to the government on tree management has slammed the chopping down of two trees on Bonham Road in Mid-Levels on Sunday, saying there is not enough proof that the decades old Banyan trees were a safety threat.

Officials from the Lands Department said the two trees were in danger of falling and posed a risk to the public.

But Ken So, a member of the Old and Valuable Tree Expert Group of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, said on Monday that he had read the tree roots assessment report submitted to the district council.

"It just said that there is some cracks on the structure but it [didn't say] that it was due the tree leaning on it," he said.

So said his aim is not save trees at any cost, but to demand a scientific approach to the assessment of dangers.

He warned that the present approach of the government may see some 300 more stone wall trees being cut down eventually.

So said there should be more evidence and facts before a tree is axed down. He said four wall trees on Bonham Road were cut down in 2015, but the threat posed by them was very unclear.

He told RTHK's Janice Wong that there is still no technology to assess the distribution and pressure put on walls by the roots of trees.

But the head of the Tree Management Office, Florence Ko, said the trees had to be removed as the stone wall they were in had already been showing cracks – and was at risk of collapsing.

A retired professor from Chinese University, Chiu Siu-wai, however, said the government's justification may not have been strong enough to cut down both of the trees and at least one of them could have been left alone.