{"id":57796,"date":"2025-06-30T14:35:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/southend-tree-that-killed-child-was-propped-up-for-decades\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T14:35:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:35:36","slug":"southend-tree-that-killed-child-was-propped-up-for-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/southend-tree-that-killed-child-was-propped-up-for-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Southend tree that killed child was propped up for decades"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Stuart Woodward<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, Essex<\/span><\/p>\n

Reporting from<\/svg>Chalkwell Park<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Shivani Chaudhari<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, Essex<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"NadiraNadira Tudor\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Inspections of the tree have been taking place in the park on Monday<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

A tree that collapsed and killed a seven-year-old girl had been propped up by supports for decades, a senior councillor has said.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of bunches of flowers and other tributes have been left in Chalkwell Park in Southend-on-Sea following Saturday’s incident<\/a>, which also seriously injured a girl aged six.<\/p>\n

City councillor and Conservative group leader, James Courtenay, said he had memories of playing near the tree as a child in the 1990s, with the wooden supports being eventually upgraded to metal ones.<\/p>\n

An investigation is under way into what happened, with inspections of the tree taking place on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"StuartStuart Woodward\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The tree collapsed on Saturday afternoon while children were underneath it<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Up to 50 people tried to lift the tree when it trapped five children underneath it shortly before 15:00 BST, witnesses told the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Assistant Chief Constable Lucy Morris said the six-year-old girl was receiving “around-the-clock care” in hospital, surrounded by her family.<\/p>\n

The remaining three youngsters have been treated for minor injuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Speaking to the BBC, Courtenay shared his condolences and well-wishes for the little girl in hospital.<\/p>\n

He said he had been visiting the park for 40 years and had memories of playing there.<\/p>\n

“When I was a child I remember it having wooden supports back in the 1990s,” he said.<\/p>\n

He added it had since had metal bars holding it up for many years.<\/p>\n

Players from Westcliff Cricket Club were some of the first to attempt to lift the tree after it fell.<\/p>\n

Mr Courtenay said: “It really must have taken half the cricket team with others to move it.<\/p>\n

“It’s absolutely huge branches for a tree that’s hundreds of years old.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"StuartStuart Woodward\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

People have been paying their respects to the children<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Jessie Huggins, 31, lives in the area and said she wanted to pay her respects.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got children myself and I think that it could have been anyone’s little one that day,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You can see the tree from here and it must have been absolutely terrifying, what people must have been going through at the time.<\/p>\n

“We could have been here that day playing in the park. I send my love to the families who were involved.”<\/p>\n

Another local resident Carol Sheil, 66, brought her two-year-old granddaughter to lay flowers. <\/p>\n

She said she has been born and raised in the area and had seen generations of her family play under the tree.<\/p>\n

“It’s just heartbreaking, it could have happened to anybody, anyone could’ve been in that position,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We just feel sorry for the families.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Tiny gesture’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Another local man, Stephen Goodsell, left a tribute at the scene on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“As a father and a grandfather, you ache for the parents of the children involved,” said the 67-year-old.<\/p>\n

“I’ve not been able to sleep since hearing the news.<\/p>\n

“This is just a tiny gesture to show the love we feel for the children, the family and everyone that’s suffering, because we’re suffering too.”<\/p>\n

Bev Noakes, who has also placed flowers, said: “There’s lots of people who witnessed it, young children who witnessed it and it must be awful.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"StuartStuart Woodward\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Many bunches of flowers have been left at the park where the girl was killed<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

David Burton-Sampson, Labour MP for Southend West and Leigh, said: “For somebody so young to lose their life in such a tragic situation is really heartbreaking. <\/p>\n

“Both myself and the rest of the community are devastated.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The park, west of the city centre, is run by Southend-on-Sea City Council. <\/p>\n

Labour leader of the council Daniel Cowan said: “This was a traumatic event for those involved, those who witnessed the incident and the emergency services. <\/p>\n

“I encourage those affected to seek support.<\/p>\n

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see floral tributes surrounded by teddy bears.<\/p>\n

“It really makes reminds you of what exactly was lost here.”<\/p>\n

He said the council would be co-operating with police as their investigation continued.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from the Health and Safety Executive said: “Our inspectors will be visiting the site as we continue to support Essex Police.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Flowers have been laid nearby for the girl who was killed by the fallen tree<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stuart Woodward BBC News, Essex Reporting fromChalkwell Park Shivani Chaudhari BBC News, Essex Nadira Tudor\/BBC Inspections of the tree have been taking place in the park on Monday A tree that collapsed and killed a seven-year-old girl had been propped up by supports for decades, a senior councillor has said. Hundreds of bunches of flowers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46],"tags":[813,737,325,17694,17693,5340],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57796"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57798,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57796\/revisions\/57798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}