Around 10 trees outside Siġġiewi primary were chopped down because their roots were causing extensive damage to the school, according to principal Sean Zammit.

The site of the roughly cut ficus trees provoked an outcry on social media on Thursday morning, with the local council denouncing the act as “obscene and insensitive.”

A view of the street before the trees were given the chop.

However, Zammit explained that the shallow roots had been pushing up tiles in the school kitchen and corridor and had become a safety hazard for the students.

“Children have tripped over the uneven tiles and ended up landing on their face. We needed to find an urgent solution to what had become a pressing problem,” he said.

After contacting the Environment Authority, Zammit said he was advised that permission wasn’t required to cut down the trees, since they weren’t endemic.

He explained that the school head followed all required procedures, and consulted parents and the school council, as well as notifying the mayor of the decision to remove the trees.

Despite this, members of a Siggiewi residents group still took to Facebook, to express their dismay and ask if alternative solutions could have been found.

“The trees were so beautiful and would offer a bit of shade while you were waiting for the children to come out of school. Things aren’t thought out in Malta,” one commenter said.

Another explained he had also experienced problems with tree roots damaging his property, but managed to solve it without cutting down the trees.

"I dug a trench a few meters from the trees, filled it with concrete and root membrane and solved the problem and the trees stayed there. The trees are 20 feet tall," he said.

In a statement, the local council explained that it had no say over the trees, which were the exclusive property of the school, but it strongly disagreed with the school's decision.

"From our end we deplore this obscene and insensitive act against the Siġġiewi community," the statement read.

Efforts to have the trees transplanted had failed since no one was keen to take them, Zammit explained.

However, the school will be replacing them with a row of endemic trees this September, he added.

In a Facebook post, Nationalist MP and Siġġiewi resident Ryan Callus quoted a poem by Victor Fenech which reflects on the hypocritical messages we are giving to children.