High winds whip up anger

Gale force winds rocked the West Midlands during a weekend that saw a tree fall on a home, pieces of corrugated iron land in gardens and power outages across the region.

Wind speeds reached 61mph in parts of the West Midlands and almost 40mph in Wolverhampton.

In Bilbrook, South Staffordshire, residents were woken by the sound of giant pieces of corrugated iron which were detached from the roof of a 12ft-high chicken coop and landed in their garden. Families spoke of their anger at the unwelcome interruption.

Ronald and Pearl Scott and their neighbour Jonathan Stuart, who live in Lane Green Avenue, say they have been blighted by work being done behind their back fences to build the chicken coop, which does not have planning permission.

Freelance writer Mr Stuart, aged 59: "I looked out and saw this piece of iron wrenched from the structure and whirl up into the air. It came crashing down right on top of the beetroots at the bottom of my garden."

Mr Clowsley applied for permission for a mobile unit housing 500 chickens in March last year and is currently facing an enforcement action by South Staffordshire District Council.

He said today: "I have been in dispute with the council for more than five years about the work I am trying to do to create the first factory farm in a residential area."

A 30ft lime tree was wrenched out of the ground where it has grown for more than 80 years and fell onto the roof of a house in Park Avenue near West Park.

The Ram family were woken by a huge bang at around 8am yesterday and were today still trying to assess the damage as broken tiles and guttering were removed.

Neighbour Alex Dhillon, a 35-year-old financial adviser, said: "I was feeding my goldfish when I heard this cracking noise. I looked at the tree and did a double take as I realised it was about to fall."

He said Wolverhampton City Council regularly trimmed the branches on the trees but that the effect was to make Park Avenue "a wind tunnel".