60ft tree in Seaford saved from chop after fears it could kill someone

The “landmark tree” has received four different applications to be felled from the same resident since 2012.

An appeal was rejected last week for the tree which stands next to Crooked Lane in Seaford.

Sue Slade wrote in her appeal that the tree near her house is “extremely dangerous having grown very tall and being in a wind tunnel from the sea winds”.

Ms Slade, 60, wrote in her appeal that the tree was healthy but dangerous for school children from Seaford Head Secondary School who walk on a path beneath it.

Lewes District Council had a council tree preservation order in place to protect the tree and refused the request in June last year. The issue was brought to the government’s planning inspector but was rejected on March 14.

Melvyn Middleton heard evidence from council arboriculturists and Ms Slade but decided that the mature tree provides “ecological benefits for the local wildlife hierarchy” and removing it would “result in harm to the character and appearance of the wider area”.

The Monterey Cypress has stood in the town for decades (Image: Supplied)

Ms Slade said: “Every day hundreds of school children walk under the tree. The branches of the tree, in windy or stormy conditions will land either in my garden, Crooked Lane or the park area.

“On one particular very stormy day, the children were walking back from school under the tree, I had to call the police to get them to block off the lane.

“The children, particularly from the lower school are too young to understand the dangers of walking under a tree in very windy or storm conditions.

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“In May 2023, a 30ft branch missed me by one minute, it landed by the door after I had just entered into my home.

“The branch was not a lower branch, but much further up. The branch was extremely heavy and would have certainly either killed me or seriously injured me.”

Ms Slade said she believed it was the “biggest tree in Seaford” and claimed some branches  were over 35ft long.

Councillor Emily O’Brien, cabinet member for climate, nature and food systems, said she was “thrilled” that council officers “saved what is undoubtedly one of the finest tall trees in Seaford”.