Hamilton Alderman Carlton Simmons has blasted the city’s Mayor for failing to “take charge” of the controversy surrounding a plan to uproot trees on Ewing Street — a week after his mother staged a protest against City Hall.

Mr Simmons was off Island last Tuesday when his mother Sherma, 61, made herself a “human shield” to prevent a row of 50-year-old French oaks running down the centre of Ewing Street from being pulled up as a part of a road refurbishment project.

The Corporation of Hamilton subsequently agreed to halt work for 24 hours and, the following day, the Chief Justice ordered a stay to temporarily suspend the project until both sides can be heard in court for a judicial review.

Mr Simmons told The Royal Gazette yesterday that the matter needn’t have reached the courts, claiming it wouldn’t have got that far if he and Deputy Mayor Donal Smith had been around.

“I do think that the situation could have been handled better if someone had shown some leadership,” he said. “I’m not quite sure why the Mayor didn’t take charge of the situation. I don’t understand how it got to that point. It begs the question: who is really in charge of the Corporation?”

But Mayor Graeme Outerbridge said the Ewing Street project was unanimously approved by the elected council of the Corporation, adding: “Once the council made its decision, it’s an operational matter.

“From the point of view of the decision of the board, why would I go against the collective decision by flip-flopping the decision that was made?”

City Hall minutes show that the council unanimously approved the uprooting of the trees on the North Hamilton street at a meeting on April 17 this year.

The full council of the Corporation can only approve resolutions with the approval of the Mayor and two Aldermen and, on that date, Mr Outerbridge gave the scheme his backing, along with Aldermen Mr Smith and Gwyneth Rawlins.

Mr Simmons was the only one of the nine elected officials not in attendance.

Residents who objected to the scheme later presented an alternative plan but, after considering it, the Corporation’s infrastructure committee agreed on July 14 not to recommend any changes to the original plan to the full council.

Mr Simmons, a member of the infrastructure committee, was also not at that meeting but it was attended by the Mayor and Aldermen Mr Smith and Ms Rawlins.

Mr Outerbridge said Mr Simmons may have missed a number of meetings but would have been invited to them all and been sent minutes afterwards.

“All along the way, everyone was consulted,” added the Mayor. “The evidence is all in the meetings that were conducted. There was tremendous dialogue all the way through.”

Mr Simmons said that as a North Hamilton resident and a Corporation member, he understood both sides of the argument.

“At the end of the day, I feel like if the residents do want the trees to stay, then it’s not a problem,” he said. “I do think we have some people who are not prepared to listen to the residents, who maybe need to start listening to the residents.”

He claimed the Corporation’s “vision of what they intend to do is changing” and he and Mr Smith were “trying to get to the bottom of it for the sake of clarity”.

“I have spoken to the Deputy [Mayor] and we intend to get a full report as to what exactly transpired to find out where we are and we’ll probably make that public. I do feel like the situation has not been handled correctly by the individuals present on the Island [last week].”

He said he had yet to speak to his mother about the matter because he wanted to get technical information from City Hall officials first. “I have deliberately not spoken to her about it because I would like to get a technical perspective as to what transpired.

“Once I do that, I’ll have the opportunity to speak to her but I wanted to keep a neutral opinion.”

He added that he had not yet spoken to the Mayor but intended to. “Quite frankly, I’m not quite sure where the leadership was on this particular issue but I intend to find out.”

Ms Simmons told reporters last week that she was “trying to save God’s trees” after she positioned herself beside one of the French oaks to stop a crane from reaching it.

Fellow objectors Henry Ming and Ashley Raynor filed an application for an injunction to stop the work in the Supreme Court and a hearing is due to be held at a later date.