It’s a beautiful tree – but what happens in winter if a storm brings it down?
That’s the question posed this week by Keswick hotel manager Chris Edwards.
He was speaking following the decision that the giant birch in the grounds of his family-run Acorn House Hotel must stay.
Lake District National Park members have backed a tree preservation order (TPO) which means it cannot be touched.
Mr Edwards was reluctantly behind an original application to have it felled having sought advice from a specialist tree surgeon amid concerns of it falling into a neighbouring property where its roots have spread.
But the block by the park authority raises serious questions over what happens next, he said.
As owners of the land on which the tree stands, he fears liability will fall on the family if the tree is blown down and damages property or injures anyone.
Having run the hotel on Acorn Street for more than 20 years, he and parents Janet and Graham, know only too well what a storm can do.
A decade ago, the tree’s twin collapsed into their neighbour’s property during a storm, but was much smaller and lighter, he said.
The concern is its larger sibling would hit the neighbouring self-catering apartments over which it towers, or fall across the hotel car park, backwards into the hotel itself, or into the residential street.
Mr Edwards, a keen gardener, said he would be as sad as anyone to see it felled, but doing nothing is not an option.
He said: “It’s a beautiful tree, we have loved having it and has been the backdrop to our garden.
“But anyone can see the size of it and it’s only getting bigger every year. We now have a letter saying you can’t lop it, you can’t cut it down, you can’t trim or pick a leaf off it and if you do you run the risk of a fine.
“Where does that leave us now? The tree is only going to get bigger and we can’t, according to the order, apply to have it lopped or trimmed.
“It just seems like the national park is burying its head in the sand. Where is the responsibility now — us or them?”
In making the decision, national park officers said that the risk posed by the tree had not been evidenced.
