FORMER Councillor Hal Ruger is furious with Barkly Regional Council after two trees in front of his residence have been destroyed.

Mr Ruger said the trees were planted 30 years ago as part of the former Tennant Creek Town Council’s green program which saw around 5,000 trees planted around the town.

He says he approached Council to trim the main tree amid concerns about a lean on it, and was contacted by a Council staffer who advised he would be cutting the tree down.

“I asked it to be trimmed back to the main trunk and let it settle back to a more appropriate position, and that was the end of the phone call,” said Mr Ruger.

“I called the BRC staff member back to make sure we were on the same page about the issue, but there was no answer, so I left a message.

“You can imagine how pissed off I was when I found out the next day that the tree was cut down, and not trimmed as we had discussed the previous day.”

Mr Ruger belives there were up to 20 staff from Council plus Power Water on site for the job.

“I wonder how many of these in attendance were qualified arborists or horticulturalists?” he said.

“Not only did they not listen to my wishes for the main tree, but they also trimmed up the other tree for no particular reason.

“This tree was not discussed and not presented as being an issue.”

The Tennant Times reached out to BRC, but no response was received at the time of publication.