'I used to ride bike under that doomed tree - it could've killed me decades ago'
She was "a shining star who brought happiness wherever she went and she met".
Leonna Ruka's death has rocked the nation. A seven-year-old girl enjoying a family day out in the park was pronounced dead within hours - after a tree collapsed on her. Concern has grown in the week since, not least because Southend-on-Sea City Council is yet to confirm when the cedar in Chalkwell Park was last inspected.
Residents across the Essex city have expressed their anger and sadness since the tragedy, which happened on Saturday afternoon. Adam Ramet, a 54-year-old dad, used to ride his trike under the huge cedar - and fears he could have been killed by it years ago. Photographs taken as early as 1919 are believed to show wooden struts that, more than a century ago, were propping up the much-loved tree's vast horizontal limbs.
Mr Ramet, who was in the park on Saturday and heard Leonna's screams, said: "The cedar has been a big strong presence that's just always been there, it sits in all our childhood memories. For this terrible tragedy to have come from that tree is almost unthinkable. People are grieving for the little girl who lost her life and shocked because they know it could so easily have been them or their own kids."
It means Southend-on-Sea is consumed with grief and sadness. Speaking to Mail Online, Mr Ramet added: "People are deeply affected by what happened... The struts have been there as long as I can remember, and you could see very clearly that it was the top of the tree that had sheared off sideways and come crashing down."
Four other children were injured in the horror on Saturday. Families had gathered in the Victorian park to enjoy the warm weather last week, many having picnics while their children played. Leonna's family had travelled to see relatives. Although Leonna's family are from Dagenham, east London, the community has rallied in Southend-on-Sea. Flowers have been left near the doomed scene.
Experts have this week indicated that while fatalities from fallen trees are mercifully rare – five or six every year across the UK according to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures – a hot summer's afternoon is the most likely time for such a tragedy. Arboriculturalists have pointed to a phenomenon called Sudden Branch Drop (SBD) – the unexpected collapse of mature tree branches during a prolonged dry period where there is no other obvious defect or cause.
But due to the police investigation, Southend-on-Sea City Council is yet to confirm when the cedar in Chalkwell Park was last inspected or whether its position next to a main footpath meant it required extra checks. Essex Police said that no arrests or charges have so far been made and that "our enquiries continue".
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'I've been coming here since I was a child. I got stung by my first jellyfish right down here. 'We still come every year. 'But it's heartbreaking. 'Every time you come, you see something else has closed. 'It used to be cafes galore down here, but it's all gone. We're having to walk quite a way up from our hotel to find a cafe. 'The area just needs a hell of a lot of investment. 'It would be good if some of the millionaires and billionaires in the country could inject some money into here because it was a great place. 'Some of it is literally paint work. Get some of the youngsters on community service to come down here and paint the fencing along the pier. It's little things. 'I have noticed though that they cleaned up the beach from what is was a few years ago, and you don't get much litter around here, so they are doing something.' Behind the Promenade, extremely close to the town centre lies a row of disused hotels. At the corner of Queen Street and Abingdon Street sit the abandoned Allandale Hotel, Carlton Hotel and the Continental, all one after the other. The birds can be seen nesting inside the buildings, which have boards lodged in place of broken windows. Posters are plastered over the outside of the hotels and paint can be seen ripping off the crumbling buildings. Sat outside the Allandale Hotel, locals Jade Gaughan, 32, and Jamie Jones, 38, told of how the areas behind the promenade have been 'forgotten'. The couple said: 'It has gotten worse. 'It's just a mess isn't it? 'It's not nice here and we feel the council do more for the promenade for visitors than for the people who live in it. 'They just forget about the side streets. 'They focus on what is going to generate money for them and leave the rest of us. 'It's the people who live here who have to look at this every day. 'There's a housing shortage so they could focus on making these abandoned hotels into housing for locals. 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Also on the Promenade sits the Sunny Days Hotel, which, while it might not look it, remains open. John George, 56, from Glasgow was sat outside the hotel when he spoke to MailOnline. On either side of the building lie two abandoned hotels. The Blue Waves Hotel sits out of use to its left, and the Blackpool Resort Hotel lies empty to its right. A few properties down, the Coastal Bay Hotel also sits abandoned. The 56-year-old, who was staying in Blackpool for a day with his family before heading to Manchester Airport for a holiday abroad, said: 'It's just us in there, there are no other customers. 'It's all just rundown.' 'See if we were booked in here for a week I would've checked out the same day', his wife added. 'We used to come down here every year from Glasgow. And in the summer you couldn't get a hotel it was so packed. 'It used to be so great. 'But now you can just tell it's unloved. It's a real shame, to see Blackpool now compared to what it used to be like. 'Now you've got these abandoned buildings. 'The difference is like night and day. 'When I used to come as a kid there'd be thousands of people hitting about everywhere. 'But yesterday when my kids were on the rides, sometimes they were the only ones on it.' Mr George feels an increase in prices and the option of flying abroad on cheap holidays has contributed to Blackpool's decline. He said: 'Everything is too dear now in Blackpool, we went for dinner yesterday it is was £62 for four fish suppers and four cans of juice. 'Foreign holidays are cheaper now, if you came here for a week or two it would cost you a fortune, but you could get an all-inclusive holiday abroad for less. 'It was £25 per person to get a ticket for Pleasure Beach, and that's just to walk around. I have no interest in going on the rides it's only for the kids, so I'm not paying £100 for four person just to walk around. 'And it shuts at 5pm now. It used to be open till late.'
