Photos by David Bretherton.
A Southampton man has spoken of his horror when a tree fell in a city-centre park, narrowly missing him.
Sharing photos of the fallen tree on social media platform Bluesky, last night (19/9/26) David Bretherton said: “literally seconds after walking under this tree in Palmerston Park it crashed down. Large enough to kill someone. Quite shaken up. Reported it to council. Real health and safety concerns about this incident.”
He added: “Thankfully no one was hurt, purely by luck. Me, husband and Oscar the dog had walked under it no more than 3 seconds before it fell. Oscar more shaken than us, to be fair, as he mistook the cracking sound for fireworks.”
A spokesperson for Southampton City Council said: “We are aware of the incident involving a lime tree in the park and are relieved that nobody was injured. The area has been made safe, and the remaining sections of tree will be cleared soon. All publicly-owned trees are managed in accordance with the Southampton Tree Operational Risk Management Strategy (STORMS). Trees in parks are inspected on a 2½ year cycle. The tree in question was within its scheduled inspection period, and no works were specified at the latest inspection.”
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