A 91-YEAR-OLD woman has described how her life is being ‘blighted’ by an overgrown tree.

Doris Foster, of Western Avenue, in Prudhoe, has been left ‘depressed’ after the tree, which backs on to her garden, has grown to be twice the height of her home in just two years.

She said: “Its blighting the lives of people, not just on my estate but others too, and nothing seems to be done about it.

“It’s grown so high, it actually depresses you, especially when you’ve been told to stay in the house all of the time.

“It’s intimidating.

“I’m 91, I shouldn’t have to be bothering with all of this.”

Doris, who has lived in her home for over 50 years, has raised her concerns with the council after birds had broken their necks and her family had collected over 20 bags of leaves from the tree.

She added: “I’m not really bothered about it being cut down, but if the height could be taken down. I can’t see things I could before.

“It doesn’t belong to me, but its branches are growing right over my house.”

A Northumberland County Council spokesperson said: “A private landowner is responsible for the maintenance of this tree.

“It is not owned by the council.

“Where people raise issues with trees, we will inspect them, which we have done in this case.

“If we believe them to pose a significant risk of harm to residents or highways users, we raise our concerns with the landowner.

“If the landowner refuses to undertake essential safety work, then we do have powers to make a tree safe and charge the landowner in default.

“However in this case, while we understand that the residents are unhappy about the tree, we do not consider it to pose significant risk of harm, and can therefore not undertake the work and pay for it from the public purse.”

The landowner was contacted for comment.