Due to safety concerns four trees in the ain retail stretch of Pollen St in Thames will be removed and replaced next Monday.

The trees, which are all melias, are on either side of the pedestrian crossing outside the Farmers and the Post Office, and will be immediately replaced with four Maori Princess Pohutukawa trees.

The four melia trees outside the Post Office and Farmers on Thames' Pollen St will be removed and replaced with Maori Princess Pohutukawa trees next Monday (June 22). Photo: Google Maps

Parks Officer Chris Muller says the trees are at the end of their useful life and can no longer be sustained without putting people and property at risk.

'If they are not replaced now,” says Chris who is a qualified arborist, 'they will become structurally unsound and more expensive to remove.”

The melias on the eastern side of Pollen St have wounds, making them vulnerable to infection, and the northern tree on the western side of the street is lifting out of its planter box.

They will be replaced with four Maori Princess Pohutukawa trees that are similar to those around the corner on Mary St.

Maori Princess are a small and compact form of pohutakawa, well suited to street plantings and will carry on the Pohutukawa Coast theme of the Thames area.

The melias will be lifted out between 6am and 8am next Monday, and may stretch over to the Tuesday if required.

Barriers will be placed around the tree pits until they can be dismantled the following week, while the tree roots will be ground out and the tree pit levels adjusted to the original pavement height.

New soil will be placed in the tree pits, the new trees planted, the soak stone tree grates reinstated and the trees staked. The surrounding pavement will then be reinstated to the correct level.

The tree removal will take place on Monday, June 22, between 6am and 8am. Work may continue the following day if required.