Conservative councillor Daniel Nelson put forward a motion for a tree to commemorate every birth and stillbirth in city.
The motion received cross-party support but speaking at a cabinet meeting on Monday, Lydia Hyde, councillor responsible for climate, environment and waste said the scheme could backfire.
She said: “The recommendation is not to take forward the motion because last year we had 1,871 births in Southend.
“The motion was calling for a tree to be planted for each of those children and also for those that have got British status in Southend as well.
“That’s a large number of trees and the only way you could achieve that is by using whips, very immature trees. I recently met with the Woodland Trust and they said if you are very good with whips you are still going to get about a 30 per cent death rate. In reality it’s going to be 50 per cent or higher.”
Ms Hyde added: “It can be very emotive around trees dying. Around children it could be a harbinger of doom and it gets even worse if that child does pass away if the tree dies as well. We have to think about the sensitivity of this motion.
“Something that came out of our working party is that we instead look to have a symbolic tree for each month of the year and we will plant those 12 trees for the births in 2025 for example, with each of the trees being a different species that look fantastic in that particular month.
“So all the children of January 2025 could go and enjoy their winter orange tree.”
Ms Hyde said Belton Hills in Leigh could be a good place for “Belton Babes” trees and she agreed with a suggestion to look at planting in play parks.
Disappointed Southchurch ward councillor Mr Nelson, said: “It just shows the lack of will and inspiration this administration has for Southend. It’s symbolic of the harbinger of doom they have placed on the city. Whilst I want to see thousands of trees around our city. remembering we are cutting down hundreds every year, they want to have twelve.
“It’s also quite disturbing they have completely missed that a big part of this was to plant trees for those who sadly lost children before birth. That was a big part of the motion and there was a promise to deliver that.”