Northumberland ash dieback risks trees falling on roads and cables

The disease kills leaves and eats the trees from the inside out

Dieback-ridden ash trees at risk of collapsing on to roads, power lines and phone cables are a "massive" problem, a councillor has warned.

The fungal disease is spreading through Northumberland's hardwood tree population.

Richard Dodd, a farmer who represents the council's Ponteland North ward, said about half the roadside trees in the county were ash.

"The problem is massive. We have got millions of trees," he said.

The fungal infection originated in Asia, but has devastated European ash populations since its introduction 30 years ago, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Northumberland County Council's communities and place overview and scrutiny committee has been reviewing plans to update the authority's tree and woodland strategy to address this and other issues.

European ash trees are being ravaged by the fungus Chalara Fraxinea Dieback

Mr Dodd told the committee: "Someone in the Hexham area felled some ash trees and they were just sawdust in the middle.

"It kills them from the inside."

in November, he warned 90% of the county's ash trees - which make up 40% of all the hardwood trees in Northumberland - would die from the disease.

But he said it would take a decade or more to remove them.

Cabinet member for local services John Riddle said dealing with the disease was "going to be an expensive and a big problem" and agreed the council's woodland strategy was "woefully out of date".

A new tree management policy to be produced within months would include plans to deal with ash dieback as well as other new diseases affecting oak and chestnut trees, councillors were told.

Mr Dodd warned: "I don't know when the next big storm is going to be - nobody does - but the longer we do nothing, the worse the problem will be."