The elm crushed lamp post and a bus stop when it fell

Residents in the Eggbuckland area said they had warned for years that it would fall and claimed Plymouth City Council should have stabilised it.

The council said it was due to examine the tree this week, but poor weather conditions brought it down.

Since the Dutch Elm Disease epidemic 30 years ago, elms are rare in the region.

Unstable soil

The tree, thought to be hundreds of years old, came down in Charfield Drive during Sunday night's storms, crushing a nearby lamp post and a bus stop.

Residents said they had warned the council several times in recent years it could fall and hit anyone waiting for the bus.

Resident Maureen Curtis said: "It was cracked, and getting lower and leaning.

"But the council said it was not leaning or anything. It's ridiculous."

Plymouth City Council said it was last warned about the tree on Friday and had planned to check it again this week.

But it said the combination of high winds and heavy rain at a time when the tree was in full leaf, and unstable soil after a prolonged dry spell, proved too much for it.

More than 30 million trees across the country were lost to Dutch Elm Disease which hit Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.