Two Ewing Street businessmen have been left perplexed by the Corporation of Hamilton’s rationale in chopping down part of the road’s line of trees, which were removed yesterday

The road was briefly closed yesterday for three trees to get the axe.

Architect Henry Ming, who shares his offices with photographer Lloyd Webbe, said he had received no response to phone calls and hand-delivered letters of objection sent in to City Hall.

Saying he had given credit where credit was due, Mr Ming told The Royal Gazette that after the renovations to the neighbouring Princess Street, he had written in a letter of congratulation to Major Graeme Outerbridge, and Deputy Mayor Donal Smith, who chairs the infrastructure committee.

“For once, the Corporation is paying respect to North Hamilton — which never happened before,” Mr Ming said.

In meetings with City officials, he said, “hypothetical” alterations were floated for Ewing Street, one of Hamilton’s quieter and more residential thoroughfares.

City secretary Ed Benevides said he had taken professional advice to the effect that the trees, which run down the median strip of Ewing Street, could be transplanted — and at a meeting last month, City engineer Ian Hind said widening the street’s sidewalks would entail removing the trees.

Yesterday, when the trio of French Oak trees came down, Mr Ming said a workman had called them “rotten”.

“We were told they wouldn’t know if they really were rotten until they came down, and I could tell by that attitude that the minds of the Corporation were made up,” he said.

Last night, Mr Benevides responded: “Our report never said that the trees were rotten. What was said was that there was sufficient stem failure and cavity decay affecting the longer term structural integrity of the trees and thus a high risk liability to public safety, following a visual tree assessment.”

The Corporation preferred to remove the trees rather than deal with “the aftermath of an incident”, he said.

The remaining six trees will be transplanted later in year as part of a street renovation project.

“This will allow the trees to actually provide a canopy for the pedestrians and street users,” said Mr Benevides. “There have been a number of meetings with area stakeholders as well as technical stakeholders to determine the final design for the project.

“Clearly with support for either decision one group or more would be unhappy with the final design but the decision has been made to remove the median, widen the sidewalks, remove all the utility poles and provide more street trees and lighting in line with the Princess Street project already completed.”