Councillors voted last Wednesday night to accept engineering director Doug Patterson’s recommendation that the plane trees, and a number of crepe myrtles, be replaced with less invasive varieties – but with one small change.

Councillor Michael Coote told council while he broadly supported Mr Patterson’s recommendation, he wanted to delay the removal of the trees until next year.

“It says here [in Mr Patterson’s report] that work is due to start this year but I don’t think in our bicentennial year we need to start removing a whole lot of trees,” he told the council meeting. “Can we hold off until next year?”

Mr Patterson replied that the decision to remove the plane trees or retain them was completely up to council, and councillors could also decide on the timetable for any work.

“This was an initiative of the council and if you want to postpone it by 12 months then that’s up to you as well,” he said.

Funding for the removal and replacement of the plane trees will now be included in the 2016-17 budget, meaning work will not start for at least 14 months.

Stage one of the three-stage project will see council staff remove all the crepe myrtles on the eastern side of Durham Street between Bentinck and Stewart streets, to be replaced with ornamental pistachios.

At the same time, a London plane tree outside a former motor dealership at 113 Dur-ham Street will be removed due to the significant damage its roots have done to the footpath.

In stage two, all remaining trees, including London plane trees, on the eastern side of Durham Street between Bentinck and George streets will be removed and replaced with Acer rubrum.

The final stage, now likely to start in the 2018 planting season, will see staff remove all existing trees on the eastern side of Durham Street between George and Stewart streets to also be replaced with Acer rubrum.

The three stages are budgeted to cost almost $190,000, with council planning to bring in mature replacement trees rather than saplings.

Mr Patterson told last Wednesday’s meeting that work to repair footpaths in the area would be carried out after the replacement program was finalised.