A 70 foot elm tree fell on a five storey block of flats in Hove on Saturday 21 November.
Brighton and Hove City Council contacted Connick Tree Care, as their term arboricultural contractor, who they knew from experience would be able to tackle this unusual situation.
When Keith Hunter, general manager at Connick Tree Care, arrived on site, he could see that the residents had actually been relatively fortunate. Keith said, “Although the Elm was approximately 70ft tall and around 7 tonnes in weight, none of the branches actually shattered any windows.”
After a period of planning and some expert assistance from Coussens Crane Hire, a Connick Tree Care team returned to site on Tuesday to remove the leaning elm. In order to position all the equipment required for the task, Nizells Avenue was closed and residents were asked to vacate their flats.
Keith explained “A 160 tonne crane was used to lift the entire leaning tree clear from the flats. The tree was then manoeuvred and lowered onto the road, where we could process the trunk and branches. The operation was fairly complex to arrange and took a lot of thoughtful planning. Once everything was in place the actual cutting, crane lift and processing was fairly quick and straightforward.”
Keith concluded, “This incident was an unusual occurrence and people should not be daunted by large trees adjacent to their property. However, tree owners should remember to have their trees inspected by a professional arborist on a regular basis”.
