The council voted at its monthly meeting on Tuesday evening to remove the trees, after ongoing correspondence between the landowners and the shire.

Three ornamental pear trees have been planted along the road reserve, which is in breach of the Port Fairy street tree management plan.

Correspondence between the property owners and the council has been ongoing since July last year.

The owners have refused to remove the trees.

Councillors voted unanimously that if they don’t remove the trees by July 1, the council will do it and return the trees to the property owners for re-planting somewhere else.

Councillor Jordan Lockett said the owners had not planted the trees for any other reason than to beautify the area.

“I think they had good intentions,” he said.

“But, council needs to stick to their guns. We can’t just have ad-hoc trees planted along the Princes Highway.”

Councillor Ian Smith agreed with Cr Lockett.

“Removing the trees and returning them is a good outcome,” he said.

“It was done with good intentions, but the variety of tree doesn’t match the requirements.”

The street management tree plan was adopted by the council in 2014 and states that the section of the Princes Highway where the trees have been planted is considered a “low priority for tree installation/placement”.

The document states the preferred species in that area would be maple, ash or redwood trees.