Division over Adelaide Oval footbridge tree razing plan PLANS to axe 70 trees to make way for the $40 million footbridge over the Torrens Lake have divided the conservation and development lobbies. A holly oak located near the Adelaide Festival Centre, with a 4.7m circumference and classed as "significant," is among those facing the arborist's axe. The report said the tree will make way for an expanded Festival Centre bistro, which is part of the bridge project, and there was "no reasonable alternative design solution." Seven "regulated" trees with trunks having at least a 2m circumference will also be felled. However, close to 80 replacement trees will be planted "to provide natural shade and to integrate the bridge with the northern bank," the report said. Adelaide Parklands Preservation Association president Ian Gilfillan said razing the trees was "sacrilege." "It's typically another case where trees in the parklands are an easy sacrifice to the government project of the moment," he said. The association opposed the bridge as an unnecessary intrusion on the parklands. Yet Property Council SA executive director Nathan Paine said the benefits of the footbridge, linking an upgraded Adelaide Oval with the city, outweighed the loss of the trees. "Adelaide Oval will deliver great outcomes for South Australia and the CBD, and if a few trees have to make way for it and more get planted, then so be it," he said. The regulated trees are three casuarinas to be removed from the southern side of Torrens Lake to allow for building bridge piles and a disability ramp, and four gum trees on the northern bank. A council committee and the Adelaide Park Lands Authority have approved the bridge design. However, the authority resolved to ask the government to try and retain as many trees as possible, especially the holly oak. A Transport Department spokeswoman said removing 70 trees was the "upper limit" and "every effort will be made to reduce the number."