Residents whose properties are damaged by Cheshire East trees are left at the mercy of the council's insurers who then stonewall them, a councillor has claimed.

Dane Valley councillor Les Gilbert (Con) asked the highways committee on Thursday to defer adopting its new policy for highway tree maintenance and inspections.

He said although the policy was largely about safety, which was paramount, he believed it should also include more about damage to private property caused by highway trees.

He referred to two cases in his ward where highway tree roots had damaged private houses.

"Our [the council's] normal response is just to pass it to insurers and then, when ward members enquire on behalf of residents what's happening, how do we deal with this, the response is invariably it's with insurers and that's an impenetrable wall of silence as far as ward members are concerned," said Cllr Gilbert.

He told the committee: "In one case, there was obvious physical damage to a neighbouring house, insurers stonewalled the claimant and would not address the claim until such time as the resident commenced legal proceedings, at which point they negotiated a settlement.

"In another case, an 80-year-old man wanted to sell up and move into appropriate accommodation for the elderly, but he couldn't because there were saplings appearing all over his property from our tree roots which made it virtually unsaleable."

He asked that the policy being proposed be taken away and looked at again so it included not just safety factors 'but a responsive attitude which supports our residents when our trees are causing damage to properties'.

But Crewe councillor Connor Naismith (Lab) argued the policy should be implemented as soon as possible.

He said: "I think the purpose behind introducing this policy is that we actually regularly inspect our trees and therefore maintain them to the point where they don't get out of hand.

"I've got trees on several streets in my ward that are causing havoc for the residents who live on those streets and that's because they don't get inspected and they don't get maintained.

"Residents tell me on Gainsborough Road [Crewe] that the trees weren't pollarded in 10 years, under the previous administration, and so the purpose of introducing a policy is so that we don't get to that stage, so I think the idea of passing this back and going on for longer of not having a policy is not the way forward."

Cllr Laura Crane (Lab), who was chairing the meeting, agreed.

"I think that we need to get this moving, we need a policy in place," she said. "Is this policy perfect? Will this policy stay unchanged forever? I don't believe so. I'd like to see us considering the issues that have been brought up around the table, but that would not stop me from suggesting that this moves forward today and voting on it."

The policy was approved.