Riverside village Malpas stranded after fallen tree cut only road off

A small village with some of the best river views in Cornwall has been cut off from the rest of the world after a large tree came down in gale force winds.

Malpas, which overlooks the River Truro where it meets with the River Fal, was the scene of amusement mixed with annoyance after the tree fell from a bank that leads down to the river across the single road in and out of the village.

A postman and a delivery man doing their rounds shortly before 1pm today (Tuesday, January 14) said they could expect to be stranded for several hours while council or highways services came down to remove the tree.

Chris Barker, the Royal Mail postie, said: “It is annoying. I only had about 20 minutes left on my shift and now I’m stranded here. I guess I’ll have to take refuge in the pub.”

Malpas is famed for its Heron Inn pub which recently underwent a massive refurbishment.

Chris added: “It’s the only road in and out and it’s blocked. They are going to have to come quickly because no emergency vehicle could get through. The village is completely blocked off.”

As Cornwall Live attended the incident in which no-one was hurt and no property was damaged, a bus came up the road and was forced to reverse out of the village the best way it could.

One woman had also been called up to pick up her stranded husband, his car stuck on the other side of the fallen tree.

Jesse Aldridge, a courier with Abbott’s Catering, said: “I was delivering cleaning products to the Heron Inn when the tree came down. I have been stranded for at least 20 minutes since the tree came down which was about 1pm.

“Thankfully there is no damage to any of the parked cars or people. But it’s going to be a nightmare getting out. It’s not just a case of taking a chainsaw to the tree.

“Some more specialist equipment will be needed because of where it is.”

Jesse and Chris said they had both contacted Highways Agency and Cornwall Council alerting them of the fallen tree.

Ex-Storm Brendan has been causing havoc across Devon and Cornwall with flood and high wind alerts in place, several trees down and accidents on local roads due to the bad weather.

Winds of over 60mph have battered coastal areas throughout the morning with heavy rain lashing the region and there are warnings over disruption to travel.

The yellow weather warning came into force at 12pm and remains in place until midnight today.

Several flood alerts are in place and there have already been several crashes on the A38 and A30 this morning.

Strong winds and heavy rain also lashed the South West on Monday, which caused flooding, power cuts and disruption to traffic and travel.