A row of trees in Santa Venera has been pruned without permission by the Society of Christian Doctrine, according to the town's mayor.

The Santa Venera local council flagged the unpermitted pruning of three trees on Triq il-Palazz l-Aħmar in a Facebook post on Wednesday morning. Photos shared by the council on its Facebook page show several trees that line the street with their branches chopped off.

Contacted by Times of Malta, mayor Gianluca Falzon said the pruning was discovered by a council worker on Saturday morning. The Brazilian pepper trees are located in front of Dar Il-Ħanin Samaritan, a property owned by the MUSEUM.

"First I contacted the council's arborist to confirm that he hadn't done it himself. I then confronted the society and they admitted to doing it," Falzon said.

The mayor said the society insisted they had a permit from the Environment and Resources Authority, but it was the council alone that was responsible for pruning the trees according to a scheduled plan.

"The council does not permit individuals or private entities to take matters into their own hands," the council said on Facebook.

Falzon also confirmed that the council would be taking legal action.

A similar incident occurred in Mosta last November, when a row of trees on Independence Avenue was pruned "aggressively".

Who carried out the pruning remains a mystery to this day, with Infrastructure Malta saying at the time that no permit had been given for the work. Several government entities, authorities and the local council denied they were responsible. 

The extreme nature of the Mosta pruning was also condemned by the Environment and Resource Authority.