Some of the suburb’s most picturesque plantings have been massacred in recent weeks to ensure no branches come within cooee of overhead powerlines.

The seemingly crude technique of simply cutting the guts out of the trees, leaving them lopsided and deformed, has raised the ire of many locals.

One resident described them as a “mangled mess”, another “stupid and ugly” and a third drew the distinction between pruning and “madly savaging with a cross-cut saw”.

However, just as many people on The Leader’s Facebook page rushed to the defence of those tasked with the trimming of the trees.

Allan Fittler, who, according to his profile, works in the vegetation management industry, said it was a simple matter of time and money.

“All you whingers, we get paid to get clearances,” he said.

“Do you realise how many trees are under the lines?

“Sure, we could spend hours on one tree making it look so pretty, if you all want to spend twice as much on your electricity bill.”

Tamworth Regional Council, which came under fire recently for its own tree-management handiwork, has even expressed its misgivings about the pruning.

Its director of regional services, Peter Resch, said the approach had resulted in “significantly deformed” trees with limbs that were “not structurally sound”.

But Essential Energy’s regional manager, Ben Williams, said its qualified contractors complied with Australian standards.

“Like most power companies in Australia, Essential Energy uses directional pruning techniques that remove branches growing towards a powerline and encourage re-growth away from the power network,” Mr Williams said.

“While this can affect visual amenity, these techniques are considered best practice throughout the arboriculture industry.”