A one-hundred-year-old lime tree toppled over in the car park at Robinson Pool on Thursday evening, miraculously missing vehicles on either side.
The small-leafed lime tree on the edge of Bedford Park appeared to be in good health and a local councillor has said there was no indication that it posed a danger to drivers or pedestrians.
Cllr Colleen Atkins (Labour, Harpur ward) happened to be in the car park just seconds after the tree fell.
She told the Bedford Independent: “It’s amazing good fortune that the tree fell exactly down the middle of a line of cars, missing them on both sides by just an inch.
“If anyone had been walking there it would have been a tragedy.”
She said the visible uplifted roots were totally rotten yet the tree was in full leaf.
“There was no wind. It just fell over,” she said.
“It happened just seconds before Cllr Zara Layne and I turned into the car park and we called it in to the council’s emergency number.”
A council highways team arrived shortly after and were awaiting a contractor to saw up the tree.
“In the meantime, it’s likely that the car owners are at the concert in the park and they’ll come back to find their cars can’t be moved,” said Colleen.
Certainly a better outcome than returning to find your car flattened.
