At least 23 50-year-old poplars have been cut in the Druzhba neighbourhood in Sofia without proper permission. The company that allegedly cut the trees, Don 95, was said to have been refused a permit several times before.

Sofia's regional forest management, the Agriculture Ministry and the state forestry agency had given permission to cut the trees.
However, trees had been cut in the Iskar park, which is municipal property and only the municipal directorate Green Systems had the right to issue such a permit, mediapool.bg said.

According to Atanas Cheresharov from the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), around 100 trees had been cut, while regional mayor Yordan Tomov, also from GERB, said only 23 trees were cut.

The terrain seemed to be prepared for construction, mediapool.bg said.

Sofia's deputy mayor of ecology, Maria Boyadzhiiska, said the cutting had happened illegally and that applications from the company to cut the trees had been rejected a total of six times over the past two years.

In the city's master plan the area was designated as park where construction was not allowed, Boyadzhiiska said.

Boyadzhiiska said the company had first filed for a permit to cut trees in 2006. The municipality decided that only cleaning of dry and dead trees could be done. "The company did not comply and tried to cut trees in 2007. At the time they have been stopped," she said.

Tomov said "we checked all the documents of the company that cut the trees and they have permissions from the National Forestry, the Agriculture Ministry and the state forestry agency."

Despite the competence clearly being with the municipal directorate Green Systems, mediapool.bg said, the head of the directorate allegedly stated that he didn't have the competence to decide on an application for the permission to cut the trees in the Iskar park.

While people from the neighbourhood and employees of the municipal inspectorate had gathered at the park, employees of the company continued to cut down trees, mediapool.bg said. Neighbours said they were worried that, now that the trees along the river had been cut, the water would undermine the riverside and the river would flood the blocks.