A plan to save trees in Fairview, Dublin in the construction of a new cycleway has been deferred by city councillors.
City officials were proposing to fell 46 trees to make way for a 2.7 cycleway linking Clontarf and the city part of the S2S route around Dublin Bay.
But after local residents objected they proposed giving over a general traffic lane instead for 350 metres along Fairview Park.
Four trees would still have to be felled at isolated "pinchpoints" but the remaining 42 would remain and be protected according to a report from council chief executive Owen Keegan.
However, councillors complained that there had not been enough time to consider the new proposals.
Cllr Deirdre Heney (FF) said that the loss of one third of kilometre of a general traffic lane meant the current plan had "fundamentally changed" since it went to public consultation.
Councillors decided that the new plan will have to be considered by the Central and North Central Area Committees before coming back to a full council meeting in October.
