The resident told Telford & Wrekin Council that 20 members of his family had been sharing an early Christmas party as a storm raged outside and was blowing the trees around.
Location map of the area. Picture: Telford & Wrekin Council
“We have always supported the preservation order and enjoyed the trees, including the pines that are over the fence from us,” wrote the resident from Sycamore Close, Wellington.
“However, on the day in December 2024 when the storm was raging we had 20 family members in the house sharing an early Xmas celebration.
“My son was anxious as the trees were blowing and I was assuring him there was no danger as any tree that has fallen in the past has fallen along the direction of the fence-line.”
But to their horror in the next morning they found out that one of the trees had fallen into neighbours’ gardens, but a matter of feet away from their home.
The resident said the incident has “truly worried” as other trees are “well within range of easily reaching our house if they were to fall.”
He said he supported the group of pine trees being axed after an investigation found that they might have brown rot in their roots. But he wants them “urgently replaced”
Two other neighbours in Sycamore Close objected to the trees being felled. The trees are covered by preservation orders.
One said they contributed to the character of the area and there was ‘insufficient justification” for their removal.
Another neighbour said: “We have common buzzards, lots of bats, woodpeckers, grouse, robins, at least four owls and have seen a peregrine falcon three or four times this year in these trees.”
He said the trees had been found to be healthy by a tree surgeon earlier in the year. “I’m struggling to see what has changed in the last four or five months,” he wrote.
Council planners gave permission after considering the points made in support and against the proposal.
The site is to the south of Richmond House, in Donnerville Gardens, Admaston. The trees are in an area of mixed woodland.
One of the trees had fallen, another had partially failed “without any visible symptoms.” They were later found to have brown rot in the roots.
“The reasoning for the felling of the remaining trees is that there is a high likelihood that this rot will have spread to the other trees in the group, and that they now pose a danger and there is material unacceptable risk to the surrounding properties,” planners wrote.
They added that other solutions had been considered but “all fail to prevent or are impractical for the prevention of further tree failure.”
Planners added: “Although we acknowledge that these trees currently offer amenity value forming part of a group, the risk of failure outweighs this.”
The applicant has agreed to a condition that the trees are replaced, the officers note.
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