However, among the issues covered was one drawing keen interest from sectors of the community.

The removal of several gum trees from Littleton Gardens due to a report outlining their potential risks to public safety caused outrage and grief – and numerous letters to the editor.

Several of those upset residents spoke before the council on Wednesday outlining their concerns over the loss of community assets and a perceived lack of effective communication between the council and the community.

Judy Geary spoke in support of Cr Keith Hughes’ call for an apology – a motion that was defeated due to lack of a seconder – saying an apology would not be an admission of guilt, but a sympathetic response to a grieving community.

She said the trees’ removal was a “slap in the face” to the volunteers who planted them in the first place as well as to those who supported landscape architect Ted Dexter’s Littleton Gardens master plan, which outlined the retention of the trees.

Ms Geary said the council’s failure to communicate openly with the community hassled to a “loss of faith” in councillors and the decisions of the council.

Jo Dodds also petitioned the council on Wednesday, “shocked and angry” at the hasty removal of the two central eucalypts.

"The trees we have lost were a major amenity and attraction to a town centre that currently has little else to recommend it," she said.

"They withstood 50 years of droughts, storms and floods with very little limb dropping and no injuries to anyone to my knowledge. 

"We now have a park that will be virtually unusable for six months of the year because it has been turned into a heat trap with no shade. 

"And we have a community in tears, feeling sidelined and misinformed. 

"It seems little has been learned since the terrible event some years ago, when the willow on Bega St, used as a regular meeting place by local Aboriginal people, was chopped down without notice when no-one was around. 

"It is no wonder the community is in despair about how this council treats decision-making."

Candelo's Zoe Hope Zanelli requested information on the drill tests performed to determine the health of the trees and also suggested council meetings be filmed and posted on the BVSC website for all interested residents unable to attend the daytime sessions.

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