A Bracknell homeowner has expressed his frustration after a huge oak tree destroyed his summer house last weekend.

Matt, Axton returned home on Sunday, August 21 to find that two 3ft long tree limbs had snapped due to excessive strain on the branch.

Neighbours were drawn from their homes in the early hours by an explosion as the tree fell to the ground covering their entire garden and flatting the house causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Inside the building was a hot tub, an exercise bike, a trampoline and a sound system which was all destroyed.

Matt said: “It’s so shocking. We were in the house on Friday evening just before it happened which is the scariest thing about this.

“If me and my grand son had been in there at the time, I truly believe it would have killed us and anyone else in the garden.

“It has destroyed all our fences and the neighbours fences as well because the limbs of the oak tree were so heavy and thick.”

According to Matt, the tree which is on council land has been maintained throughout the years and trimmed when necessary.

The News believes that the council sent contractors out to trim the oak tree where they saw too much weight was being applied to the limb.

Mr Axton added: “When the council came round a few months ago, they did cut a good chunk off the tree however they left the two limbs.

“The council contractors that returned to clear the debris from my garden said that they should have been taken down a long time ago and that the failure was inevitable.

“Now that the tree is out of balance it’s lost a lot a lot of it’s weight from the front of it and now if the whole thing comes down it will hit the main house.”

“I am absolutely gutted because we still have a little bit of the summer left and we use the hot tub all year round although I am more upset with the council. They came round and inspected it, tok a little weight off and disappeared.”

“The weight of the branch was really it’s own demise.”

Sally Hendrick, Head of Audit & Risk Management, said:

 

“We can confirm that we have received a claim from the householder on this matter. It would not be appropriate for us to comment further, while we investigate this claim.”