Council contractors started work to fell the trees shortly before 7am yesterday, after the council voted in favour of their removal last month to allow a project to realign a stormwater pipe to begin.
In January, the council put the removal of the trees at the edge of the Oamaru Harbour area on hold after councillors were caught out by staff plans to fell the trees on the road reserve alongside a Waterfront Rd and Tyne St harbour accommodation site sold by the council in July.
Two Tyne St residents, Ian Bradshaw and Brian Harris, made their displeasure known when they protested at the site while the work was being completed.
Mr Harris said concerns voiced by nearby residents had been ignored.
"I don't believe there was much public input. This seemed to ram straight ahead with council's approval. We tried to object but were stymied in our reasonable objections. This was performed in the early morning when no-one could see it. It's rather stealthy, rather nefarious ... Was this just a ruse to rid the hotel of those trees?''
He likened the removal of the trees to "eco-destruction'' and said the area now resembled "Baghdad or Bakersfield''.
"It's all dirt and gravel and all we have to look forward to is a wall of a motel. We're talking about painting a tree on there to make it look green.''
In a letter to residents, provided to the Otago Daily Times, council project manager Joshua Rendell said the stormwater main replacement project was being carried out to provide "much-needed network improvements''.
The letter went on to say the decision to remove the trees ``has not been made lightly and was deliberated over by council staff and councillors for some time'' and there was ``little option'' but to fell them because of the location of other utilities in Tyne St.
It also said the council had "committed to preparing a landscaping plan for the area'', which would be communicated to nearby residents "for comment in due course''.
Council assets group manager Neil Jorgensen defended the council process leading to the decision and said all information related to it was publicly available.
"Council listened to people's concerns. We met with the neighbours and we advised them what was happening. The main council report clearly outlined why the trees needed to come out. Unfortunately, in this case the pipe needed to go there. The rest of the road is full of water mains and utilities. We needed to box on and get the pipe in so we didn't hold up the motel work.''
