Norwood Payneham & St Peters accidentally cuts down street tree in front of the mayor’s house

An Adelaide mayor says he’s “white hot with anger” after he reported a dying tree to his council before finding out workers turned up at his house instead.

A healthy street tree was wrongly cut down out the front of an eastern suburbs mayor’s home, after he complained about a dead tree in a completely different street.

Norwood, Payneham & St Peters Council contractors razed the 8m-tall tree outside Robert Bria’s Trinity Gardens property by accident on Wednesday.

Mr Bria, the NP&SP mayor since 2005, called council staff to point out an unhealthy tree in Hilltop Ave, Felixstow, in March, but the complaint was not addressed until this week.

The council’s internal system required the address of the unhealthy tree and the address of the person who had complained about it.

The tree out the front of Robert Bria's house before it was cut down. Picture: Google Maps

Norwood, Payneham and St Peters Council Mayor Robert Bria. Picture: Dan Schultz

And what was left on Wednesday. Photo: Supplied

A mix-up led to council staff sending contractors to Mr Bria’s home – two suburbs away from the problem tree.

Mr Bria estimated the felled deciduous tree was 20 years old.

He was “absolutely white hot with anger that this mistake has been made”.

“I did not want this tree to be removed,” Mr Bria said.

“It was a magnificent specimen and there was nothing wrong with it … (The contractors) are just given the address so obviously there are some flaws in the process that need to be looked at but in the meantime, it is distressing, embarrassing and questions need to be asked about how this happened.”

The council administration referred questions to Mr Bria.