A group of protestors joined together on Tuesday for a walk from the Capuchin convent down a road to Marsalforn, to show the authorities that they don't want the trees removed.

The protest was organized by Din L-Art Helwa

The project was covered by a planning application that had been filed in 2019, which proposed a junction improvement and road widening to the existing road and construction of a schemed road.

Photographer and environmentalist Daniel Cilia spoke at the protest, and said that in the 55 years he has lived, traffic was never jammed on the road in question, and that it does not need to be extended in terms of width.

He said that the idea of the protest is to show the "powers" that the trees are loved and needed.

"What it (the road) needs is upgrading and to be straightened in some parts. That's it. We do not need a huge project costing millions, which would mean that at the end of the day, we would end up with something uglier than what we started off with," Cilia said.

Cilia expressed Din l-Art Helwa Ghawdex's disappointment that the plans for the road according to the Planning Authority involves removing two stretches of trees, despite that Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri had promised to retain the road's character.

Cilia said that this was one of the suggestions the organisation proposed, and was accepted completely by the Minister.

He said that meetings between the group's members and Camilleri himself, along with his architects and staff, went well, and that suggestions would be taken on board.

"I hope that somewhere between the PA, the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) and the Gozo Ministry, there was a mistake, and these trees will be saved," Cilia said.

Din l-Art Ħelwa Għawdex estimated that around 200 mature trees are set to be uprooted during road works, exceeding the original estimate of 177 trees in the initial project version, with only 98 trees designated for transplantation.

Protestors tied 400 metres of black ribbon around the branches of some of the trees which are to be uprooted, symbolizing their pending death.