High winds cause trees to topple across Huddersfield

Oct 5 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

High winds cause trees to topple across Huddersfield

GUSTING winds of up to 60mph brought tree chaos to Huddersfield.

Trees and large branches were brought crashing down – but luckily no-one was hurt.

In Lindley the winds brought a huge branch down from trees that residents have long felt were dangerous.

Janet Evans, 65, woke up on Saturday morning to find a 12ft long branch had fallen on her car, parked in the grounds of Church Tower View, off Lidgett Street.

“I thought it would have been a write-off when I first looked out my window and saw it,” she said. “But it’s just scratched.

“This is a massive branch. There are a lot of elderly ladies living here who have to walk through this car park to get to the bins.

“If one had been hit, they could’ve been killed.

“This has been going on for two years.

“We’re just waiting for the next one to come down.”

Mrs Evans, who has lived at the flats for three years, said her car was damaged by a falling branch in the same place earlier this year.

But when she tried to claim for the £80 repair her insurers refused to pay out because the trees had not been properly maintained.

Mrs Evans said they had been trying to get the landowners to prune the trees, but they were yet to take any action.

Fellow resident, Audrey Daniels, added: “We’ve also been trying to get Kirklees Council to trim the trees.

“We’ve been telling them they’re dangerous.

“They’re Ash trees and they’re very brittle, but we’ve been told there’s a tree preservation order.”