VIOLENT winds caused a tree to be torn down overnight.

An arborist team from Reading Borough Council attended Dwyer Road shortly after 8.20am on Thursday.

Neighbours were left stunned when they opened their doors to find the '50-year-old' tree resting on a white car.

Bus routes have been affected by the incident, with cars being forced to mount the kerb in order to get around the tree.

Reading Borough Council's team started removing the tree at 8.40am.

Workers on the scene suggested the job would take no longer than two hours to complete.

A spokesman for Reading Borough Council said: “Following the high winds yesterday evening, a cherry tree in Dwyer Road fell from a grass verge onto a parked car and is blocking both lanes of carriageway and the footpath. 

“Whilst the tree is actually outside of Reading Council’s boundary and belongs to West Berkshire Council, our out of hours officer was notified of the situation just before 7am this morning and our arborist team has responded.

"We have contacted West Berkshire Council this morning and agreed it is more practical for us to remove it and make the area safe as we have a team on site.

"There are reports of a tree that has fallen from council land onto property in Trelleck Road, Coley. We have not seen this yet so do not know if there is any damage, but we are responding.”

Other reported fallen trees include:

A large beech tree has fallen on Linden Road – across the carriageway and is blocking the junction but single file traffic can get through. It also brought down a lamp column. We have a team on site dealing with the tree and SSE are there to isolate the supply for the lamp column. 

Mayfair – a large horse chestnut tree has fallen from the verge onto a parked vehicle. It is also blocking the footpath. We have a team attending to this tree currently. 

Albert Road Recreation Ground – a 10m tall beech tree has fallen inside the park. Only damage noted so far is to a dog bin. We have a team on site dealing with this. 

Upper Warren Avenue – large lime tree has fallen from grass verge and is blocking the carriageway. Cars are making their way round this via the verge on the opposite side of the road. This is next on the list for us to deal with and we will be there shortly.