Bradford & District | Archive | 2005 | January | 12
From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Wednesday 12th Jan 2005.
A dad whose house was damaged by a falling tree fears for the safety of his two young daughters because he cannot fell the remaining trees in his garden.
Monty Graham says the girls are lucky to be alive after a giant cedar toppled into his house and demolished his garden shed during severe storms.
The tree tore holes in the house roof and came within inches of crashing into the bedroom where Maisie, four, and nine-month-old Mae had been sleeping.
Firefighters were called to their home in McMillan Gardens, Odsal, at 4am on Saturday after neighbours raised the alarm.
The remaining trees in Mr Graham's garden are protected by Bradford Council tree preservation orders and now he fears a repeat as the windy weather continues.
He said: "I was looking at the trees yesterday and they were swaying around.
"I have two chestnut trees and four other trees. The tree which fell was massive but the trunk was completely hollow - it must have been dead. There are three other trees which don't grow anything so I am worried they are dead as well and could fall into the house.
"My wife Michelle and the children have been staying at her mother's since it happened because it is just not safe."
Mr Graham, 31, said the family had been lucky as the tree had been leaning towards the house and had it fallen the way it was leaning, it would have struck the children's bedroom.
"I was asleep when there was this almighty noise," he recalled. "It woke the neighbours up; they thought the windows were going to come through. It fell onto the shed which is just not there anymore. The branches came four feet into the house roof and took off tiles."
Now Mr Graham wants to see if the remaining trees in his garden are a threat. But he fears a tree preservation order will prevent him being able to get them removed.
He will have to apply for a retrospective removal order to allow him to remove the fallen tree from his premises and has to provide photographic evidence that he did not knock the tree down himself.
A spokeswoman from Bradford Council said that Mr Graham would need a tree surgeon's report to prove that the trees in his garden were in imminent danger of falling and then submit an application to the authority's tree team for them to be removed.
Mr Graham is also demanding answers from the housing association which has a 50 per cent ownership of their home.
He reported the damage as soon as it happened to North British Housing Association's 24-hour helpline but said nobody had been to see or repair the property four days later.
He said: "It has been a nightmare from day one. I have not been able to get anybody to come out. I've got a builder out off my own back. If it had been left to the housing association there would still be holes in the roof."
© Newsquest Media Group 2008