Tree felled after falling berries deemed health and safety risk

A woman who enjoyed looking at the tree from her house in Hillside, Whitchurch, said she was shocked to arrive home to find it had been axed.

Jan Matland told The Gazette: “It’s health and safety gone mad. Icy weather is probably more at fault rather than a slippery berry.”

The mother-of-two said she had nurtured the tree, which had grown to eight-foot, since moving into her home 14 years ago, adding: “I got people to prune it and tend to it until it was this beautiful tree.

“But when I came home, there was nothing left of it.”

Mrs Matland said she enjoyed looking at the tree, adding: “In the winter, it had beautiful red berries and the birds used to feed on it.”

She added: “I wasn’t even given the opportunity to give my view. They didn’t even ask me.

“I could have gone out there and swept up all the fallen berries.”

Mrs Matland, who works part-time, has emailed Jephson Housing Association, which cut down the tree, to complain.

In her email, she said: “I am extremely hurt and angry that this has happened, I have now lost the enjoyment of watching the birds using the tree as a source of food in the winter from the kitchen window, the dawning of the new day with the bird song, the start of spring with the wonder of seeing the first clusters of blossom coming out, the beauty of seeing the red berries against the white snow.”

Mrs Matland informed Jephson that she will no longer pay weekly maintenance costs, because she believes the money is not being well spent.

A spokesman from Jephson Housing Association said: “Acting on advice from specialists, and after carrying out our own investigation, we recently instructed tree surgeons to remove a crab apple tree from outside our properties in Hillside, Whitchurch.

“This tree had been identified by independent assessors as posing a risk to public safety as it was dropping hard, stone-shaped fruits on to a footpath.

“We have replaced it with a more suitable ornamental tree.”