The last standing tree in Spinola road has finally been chopped down despite a campaign by residents and the mayor to save it.

Surrounded by construction debris, only the stump of the 60-year-old eucalyptus tree remains, with a crying face painted on to it.

St Julian's Mayor Albert Buttigieg who joined residents to campaign to save the tree from being axed to make way for a luxury business development, said he believed its demise was intended all along.

However Portomaso director Ray Fenech insisted it would be replaced with a mature indigenous olive tree instead. 

What the tree looked like in August 2020 Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

What remains of the tree in October 2021 Photo: Jonathan Borg

In August last year, residents campaigned to save the tree, which they said offered shade and relief in an area afflicted by continuous construction. It once sheltered stray cats under its boughs. 

Just a few months later, the once mature and evergreen tree became wilted and brown, choked with construction waste.

But Fenech said at the time that he had instructed his developers and landscapers to modifly plans to keep the the tree. 

Photo: Jonathan Borg

Speaking to Times of Malta on Wednesday, Fenech confirmed that the tree was chopped earlier this week after landscapers notified him that it could no longer be taken care of.

 “We will replant a beautiful mature indigenous olive tree which I have been informed is around two storeys tall,” Fenech said.

He said landscapers have 14 days to uproot the old tree and clean the area to replant the new olive tree. 

“If plans are followed, the new tree should be replanted by the end of next week.”

Residents and St. Julian's mayor fumed at the news of the removal of the tree.

Roza Zammit, who lives in the area and used to feed cats there, said she was in mourning. 

Mayor Buttigieg slammed Fenech for his decision to allow his workers to cut the tree "as they intended to do all along".