A WOMAN has been left scared to let her children play outside because of falling branches from the “dangerous” trees in her garden.

Laura Power, aged 29, from Farnworth has had problems with the poplar trees in her garden since she moved in around three years ago and had repeatedly complained about them to her landlord Onward Homes, formerly Contour Homes.

Miss Power, who lives in Century Lodge, has been told the trees are protected, but she worries about protecting her two young children, Jack, aged 10 and George, aged two.

She said: “I reported it when I first moved in because the branches were falling and they said ‘there’s nothing we can do’.”

In July 2015, when Miss Power was pregnant with George, she was almost hit by a branch so large it dented her car.

She said: “I was walking up the drive, I heard this crack! I ran and this big branch just fell on to the house. A neighbour came running thinking it had hit me. It landed half on the house and half on the car.

“I rang them and they said they would send a joiner. I said ‘it doesn’t need a joiner’. I said it’s dangerous, it’s nearly hit me and there’s a child in the house.”

Miss Power says she has to move branches a few times a week and they rain down in all sorts of sizes. Most recently, on Saturday she said Jack was playing in the garden when a large branch fell down.

After the near miss in July 2015, Miss Power was moved into a hotel for one night after the fire brigade had assessed the trees. She said: “The fire service condemned the house and ordered Contour to place us in a hotel until the trees were made safe.”

However, only one of the trees was cut down.

Miss Power says Onward representatives have repeatedly told her the trees are protected and so they are prevented from pruning or cutting down the trees without permission from the council.

Bolton Council advised The Bolton News that to make changes to protected trees a planning application should be submitted to the council, which would then be dealt with via the normal planning process.

However, no such applications have been submitted to the council by Onward Homes in respect of these trees for at least the past two years.

The council website shows there are tree preservation orders in place on 30 poplar trees in Century Lodge.

Andrew Brown, regional director for Onward Homes said: “A number of tree surveys have been undertaken over the years to help manage these trees within the tree preservation order which currently protects them. However, our tree experts have advised us that these poplar trees are unsuitable for a garden and therefore we are in the process of submitting a planning application to Bolton Council requesting permission to fell the three trees in Miss Power’s garden, and heavily pollard the remaining ones that front the property.”