A FURIOUS resident has expressed his anger over tree related deaths, after he had warned The Royal Borough nearly 10 years ago about the risks of trees falling onto roads.

Recently, a man was killed in February after a tree had collapsed on the A308 Windsor Road while he was driving.

In 2012, another man died because a falling tree hit the car onto the A332 while travelling near Ascot Racecourse.

Barry McKay, who lives in Ascot, told the News that he had made RBWM (Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead) aware of the risks the trees posed, five years before the first tree related death in 2012.

He said: "It seems as though they care more about tree protection orders than protecting people."

After the resident moved to The Chase in 2005, he alerted The Royal Borough over the dangerous looking trees in his garden and a year later, a tree fell into the Papplewick Schools' car park.

Barry said: "It took myself, a complete layman who did not know anything about trees to alert them to this hazard.

"We were lucky, it could have caused a serious injury had someone had been there in the wrong place at the wrong time, or if it had collapsed onto the main Windsor-Ascot highway."

Residents have expressed their concerns when it comes to getting their trees cut down due to Tree Protection Orders (TPO) put in place.

When trees have a TPO, then applications for consent would need to be submitted to the local planning authority in order for the tree to be cut down or removed.

The Windsor Road, which runs through Ascot is full of tall, heavy top trees and have amounted to deaths over the past years.

The Royal Borough say an exception can be made which allows the removal of a dead or dangerous tree.

However, MrKay said his trees were dangerous prior to the first death, and The Royal Borough 'could have acted a lot quicker' when he alerted them to the risks.

A spokesperson from RBWM, said: "The safety of our residents is one of our top priorities.

"As part of this, we regularly inspect trees in public areas to ensure that they are safe and meet statutory obligations.

"All the trees along Windsor Road have been inspected in the last two years. In addition to this, we also inspect trees whenever concerns are raised by residents.

"For trees that a privately owned, the tree owner has a duty of care to ensure that the trees are safe and that they are inspected by a qualified person on a regular basis."