Restaurant owners apologise for chopping down 80 trees after backlash

A restaurant in South Lanarkshire has apologized for its “insensitive” decision to cut down 80 nearby trees to “make space”.

The owners of The Osprey in East Kilbride cut down dozens of trees last week, sparking an outpouring of anger in the local community and on social media, which threatened to boycott the restaurant.

A spokesman said Scottish Forestry was currently investigating the incident because “no logging permits are available for this work”. Independent.

The Birk family, the owner of the restaurant, said in a statement on Facebook, “We are sorry. We misunderstood this.” Previous social media posts from earlier this month suggested the restaurant was currently closed for renovations.

“We have to hold up our hands and say we made a mistake clearing the wooded area in front of the restaurant.”

Birks added that they cut down the trees to “clear up the area out front and possibly expand the parking lot in the future.”

“There was no order to protect the trees and the restaurant is not in the conservation area, but we know this is no excuse for the insensitive call to remove the trees,” they said.

The investigation will investigate whether the family acted in accordance with the rules by cutting down the trees.

South Lanarkshire Council head of planning Fraser Carlin said: East Kilbride News: “I can confirm that the trees are not subject to a tree protection order and therefore no permits are required or granted.

“However, we can advise that in some cases a logging permit from Scottish Forestry may be required.”

Local MSP Collette Stevenson said she had been informed by South Lanarkshire Council’s head of planning and regulatory services that “they do not own the land and the Tree Preservation Order is not in place”.

“Given the public interest, it is vital to establish the facts and confirm what happens next,” he said.

The family said they will now replant the young trees and bring in a landscape architect to look at the area.

“We hope you will all give us another chance to show who we truly are and what we hope to bring to the local community,” the statement said.

Responses from potential customers were divided, with many not accepting the apology.

“So you’re planting it again. That’s nice! Maybe in 40 years I can come back for dinner on my 90th birthday and have a nice woodland to look at instead of a noisy two-way road,” one comment said.

Another commenter said it was “much easier to ask for forgiveness than permission”, while a third said the Birk family was trying to “downplay the significance of what has been done”.

Other commenters praised the family for apologizing and accused people of “overreacting” to the downed trees.

Scottish Forestry said it “takes all reports of allegations of unauthorized logging very seriously”.

“There is no cutting permit for this work, so we have now launched an investigation and visited the site today to inspect,” the statement said.

“Now that an investigation has been opened, it would be inappropriate to comment further on this case until it has been concluded and next steps have been agreed.”