Trees and tiles topple in storm

Richard Cutcher • Published 7 Jan 2012 09:30

STORMY weather on Tuesday morning led to a lucky escape from flying roof tiles for one man in the Royal Borough.

A section of Broadway, in Maidenhead, was closed from Tuesday morning and may not reopen until Monday, after the council decided it would need a crane to assess the damage caused by severe gusts of wind.

Tiles from the roof of Atkinson & Keene estate agents, in Queen Street, were blown off at 7.55am shortly after Nigel Keene, 45, a partner at the estate agents, arrived at work.

Mr Keene said: "I got a call from police just five minutes after I parked up saying the roof tiles had come off our building and hit a black Mercedes - that was my car! They have almost bent my boot in half they came down at such a force."

A council spokeswoman said the section of Broadway - between Queen Street and Grove Road car park - would remain closed until it was safe to be reopened.

John Kidd, of Kidd & Co Solicitors in Bray, owns the damaged building and said: "It is extremely difficult to get to the particular part where it is affected. Anybody would be concerned by the damage."

In Old Windsor, where persistent flooding has led the Environment Agency to commit £1.8m to improve the water defences this year, Cllr Malcolm Beer expressed his concern at the downpour.

Councillor Beer said: "We always have problems here so of course it was a concern when the rain came down.

"You do worry for the residents and local businesses when you wake up to such heavy rainfall."

A Royal Borough spokeswoman said there were fallen trees reported in London Road and Horton Road in Datchet and Staines Road, in Wraysbury.

Thames Valley Police spokeswoman said: "We had a lot more calls on Tuesday to do with the weather and there were a lot of reported incidents of trees lying across the road."

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