Residents in Mandurah's southern suburbs are seeing red over the Norfolk Island Pine trees lining their streets and causing "considerable damage and expenses".
Neighbours in Port Bouvard's Princeton Drive have united to express their frustrations over the street trees which they say are damaging their properties and costing thousands of dollars in repairs and maintenance.
Local resident, Tom Linkhorn, said the trees, which can grow up to 60 metres tall and three metres wide, had problematic root systems due to their huge size.
He said, despite the City of Mandurah's responsibility for the trees, the roots had never been pruned and nothing had been done to stop them "intruding" on local properties.
In a letter to city officers, Mr Linkhorn described the "oversight" as a "dereliction of duty" by the City of Mandurah.
"It deeply saddens me at the City's total disregard for ratepayers' needs and properties on Princeton Drive," he wrote.
"The Port Bouvard estate, when planned in the 1980s, was to be a luxury canal development with large blocks. The Norfolk Island Pines on Princeton Drive were the first street trees to be planted as they were considered suitable for large blocks with adequate setbacks.
"Unfortunately, development did not go to plan and the block size shrunk as low as 200 metres with full council approval, but no one reconsidered the selection of suitable street trees.
"These trees are the responsibility of the City of Mandurah - the City protects them and does not allow ratepayers to touch them.
"The City of Mandurah refuses to make any repairs or compensate us to allow repairs to our properties, caused by the intrusion of the tree roots."
Mr Linkhorn wrote that the root systems were causing so much damage, local residents were being forced to consider further action.
"Destroying walls, concrete drives, paved drives, tilting walls, lifting pavements slabs, creating tripping hazards, which at least three people, to my knowledge have taken falls," he said.
"The committee to date has spent thousands on repairs and maintenance with thousands of dollars' worth of repairs outstanding that we know of.
"This problem has been neglected long enough and enough correspondence has passed between us and the City of Mandurah with no action being taken.
"We now find ourselves in a situation of spending many hours... visiting lawyers, discussing our situation with the media and police in an effort to understand our rights to prevent damage to our properties."
City of Mandurah chief executive Mark Newman said he was aware of the concerns held by residents of Princeton Drive in regards to the pine trees.
However, he said the size of the trees and root growth did not warrant their removal.
"Norfolk Island Pines and Cook Island Pines have been planted in both Princeton Drive and Northport Boulevard to suit the Mediterranean design theme of the estate, and were planted as signature trees for the estate," he said.
"These trees are highly suitable for exposed coastal sites... and are predictable in growth rates and habit, structurally very strong and can stand extreme wind pressure.
"The City acknowledges there is root growth which may be in conflict within the surrounding infrastructure, however not to the extent that warrants tree removal."
Mr Newman said the City would engage an aborist to reassess the site "at the earliest opportunity".
"In 2017, an independent arborist was engaged to assess the tree and it is now an appropriate time to revisit the tree with an independent Aboriculturist report which will guide the future outcome of the tree," he said.
"Nearby infrastructure such as walls should be designed to include a particular construction technique that takes the root plate of the tree into account, however this advice was not sought."
