A SWANVALE man had a rude awakening on Monday morning when a 70ft fir tree came crashing down in his back garden.

Brian Mills, of Hillside Road, Falmouth says the tree came down just before 3.30am, wrecking his shed and landing with its tip just yards from his back door.

He said: “I was between asleep and awake, with the weather, and the next minute it all came whooshing down.”

Pam Fyfield, who has been living at the address next to Mr and Mrs Wills for 49 years, said: “We’ve been on to the council for the last three to four years to get it either halved or cut down.

“They came and lopped off the bottom branches, and we asked them to take the tops but they said it would be alright.

“Any bigger and it would have had the house. It’s a good job it didn’t come down on Saturday when Brian was working up there.”

Brian’s wife Di said: “I looked out of the window and I could have cried.

We’ve only been here 12 months and we’ve just started getting the garden looking right.”

The couple contacted the council as soon as possible, and were told a tree surgeon would attend to assess what action should be taken.

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said it had sent tree specialists to inspect the site and a report is being given to Mr and Mrs Wills.

They said: “The tree was on Cornwall housing land, and Cornwall housing is an arm’s length company. We have contacted Cornwall housing but haven’t heard back from them.

“The inspection report says there are three trees: two they don’t anticipate coming down, but one they said needed to come down.”

It was unclear whether or not this was the tree which had already fallen, or a neighbour of a similar height.

A Cornwall Housing spokesman said: “Cornwall Housing Ltd received a report of a fallen tree in Diana Close, Falmouth yesterday and immediately sent a local contractor to the site who then started work on removing it straight away.

“Whilst on site, the contractor noticed that there were more trees made unsafe as a result of the recent wet weather and work is currently being carried out on these trees to ensure they are made safe"

Falmouth Packet: