CHILDREN had a lucky escape when strong winds caused a large tree to crash onto a Bedworth playground. The 30ft silver birch was blown down in the council-owned Miners’ Welfare Park on Sunday January 22, as youngsters were using equipment on the newly-installed, state-of-the-art play area. “Fortunately, no-one was injured,” said an onlooker. “Everyone just ran out of the way and the trunk and branches toppled against the metal perimeter fence. It was a bit scary at the time.” The only damage caused was to the fence and part of the play surface. Contractors were called in by the council to remove the fallen tree. An adjacent tree, which had also been affected by the gale-force winds, was also chopped down. Councillor Ian Lloyd, cabinet member for arts and leisure at Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, said: “We have teams out inspecting our play areas at the weekends and a check was made early on Sunday. The tree had not fallen at this time. ‘‘There were, however, strong winds on Sunday and during the play area inspection on Monday morning the fallen tree was discovered. ‘‘The park was then closed to allow workers on site to cut up, remove and make the play area safe for reopening. “Thankfully, no injuries have been reported, which was our main concern. ‘‘The only minor damage has been to a fence panel and to the surface area and both have required only small repairs.” The Bedworth councillor added: “The trees in our parks are visually inspected twice a year, once in leaf and once out of leaf. ‘‘The trees were last inspected in August of last year and were due to be inspected in the next month or so. ‘‘However, the visual inspection would not have indicated any problems as the cause of this lay underground. There had been a failure of the root plate, causing the tree to up-root, which does occasionally happen.” | 
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