A chainsaw crew had to move into action in one of Hitchin’s poshest streets on Saturday morning after a mature tree toppled without warning. completely blocking the road.
The tree fell at about 7.15am and although it crashed through an overhead telephone line no other serious damage was done and nobody was injured.
It was buit into the fence outside businessman Stuart Dinsey’s home.
The 48-year-old Stevenage FC director said: “We’re just very grateful - the whole street is grateful that it wasn’t on a Monday morning. There were no cars parked.
“We’re joking that they’ve finally introduced some traffic calming measures to this road!”
Stuart and his wife Linda, who cheerfully provided hot drinks for the workers as they cleared the road, moved into the house in The Avenue only two years ago and had no idea that the tree might have problems, but after it fell it was clear that it was rotten to the core.
Stuart made efforts to make the area safe by posting cones at both ends of the road after alerting the highways authorities, who arranged for a tree surgeon to come to chop up the timber and remove it from the site,
Stuart said: “There was no sign of wind, there was no sign that anything was going to happen.
“If you’d driven past at 6am the tree would have looked the same as all the others.”
The road was clear again by lunchtime.
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