The Palma City Councillor for Infrastructure, Accessibility, and Industrial Parks, Belén Soto, has denied that there were any economic interests behind the felling of the beautiful shade trees in Llorenç Villalonga Square, as some residents claimed during their protest outside the City Hall on Tuesday against the municipal initiative. Some residents also suspect that the City Council cut down the trees to increase the visibility of the hotel located in the square or to allow the establishment to install terraces. In this regard, Soto clarified that she has not met "with anyone" and considered the residents' suspicions to be something they themselves "created." She also asserted that "from the outset, we have acted with complete transparency and have informed the Palma Verda Roundtable, a forum for dialogue where all political parties are represented, in addition to various neighborhood associations and organizations." Similarly, Soto emphasized that "removing the trees was the last resort," but justified the decision by stating that Cort had to implement it because "there was a high risk and the only viable alternative was their replacement." Meanwhile, the head of the Infrastructure and Accessibility department, Urbano Sánchez, criticized the fact that at the Palma Verda Roundtable, "no one" criticized the municipal institution's initiative except for the Amics de la Terra association. Along the same lines, he justified the City Council's failure to provide the residents with the technical reports supporting the tree removal, stating that Cort "has always been convinced that the explanations provided were sufficient." Furthermore, Soto noted that after the Roundtable meeting, Cort met with the residents again to discuss the issue. Sánchez explained that in Palma "there had already been previous incidents of branches falling from beautiful shade trees," a problem that began in 2009 in Llorenç Villalonga Square and also in other parts of the city. "After the first warning," he added, "the following incidents began in 2017, one on September 13 of this year, when a fracture occurred at the crown—the point where the trunk branches to form the canopy—and another on November 21, when the tree had to be cut down due to a storm," noting that "the weather is particularly harsh on the trees in this square." A few years later, "at the end of 2023, and after a systematic and rigorous evaluation of these trees, the felling of five specimens of beautiful shade trees was proposed." Then, they recalled, "the Balearic Tree Association filed an injunction, which the court ultimately rejected, ruling that the explanations given by the City Council and the priority of public safety justified the action, and the felling of five trees considered to pose the highest risk proceeded. There's still more to come. "One of them, in August 2024, a year later, also gave way at the branches," they added.