Thousands to protest in Madrid over ‘barbaric’ plan to fell over 1,000 trees

Coalition of neighbourhood groups and NGO seek to halt park works that are part of extension of Spanish capital’s metro system

Thousands of people are due to gather in Madrid on Saturday to protest against “barbaric” plans to cut down more than 1,000 trees in two popular parks to make way for an extension of the city’s metro system.

Although the regional government of Madrid had originally planned to build two new stations on line 11 of the metro in streets south-west of the city centre, it has now decided that the stations will be located in the old Arganzuela section of the Madrid Río park and in the nearby Comillas park.