An oak tree fell in Kingston Cemetery causing extensive damage over the weekend.

The old oak came down as high winds battered Kingston on Saturday (June 15).

The oak stood near the centre of Kingston Cemetery, and caused significant damage on falling over, disturbing the area around several nearby graves.

The Comet spoke with Alison Fure, an ecologist in the borough who spotted the damage caused by the tree soon after it fell.

"It's a really sad occurrence," Ms Fure told the Comet.

"There were really, really strong gusts in Kingston on Saturday — it was like a mini hurricane.

"If you look you can actually see that the tree has been wrenched apart, quite a dramatic scene," she added.

Responding to a request from the Comet, tree surgery specialists Advanced Tree Services (ATS) confirmed that they had been contracted to remove the felled tree from the cemetery.

They offered no information on whether the oak wood from the tree would be preserved or otherwise disposed of.

Ms Fure speculated that company would likely not preserve the oak wood from the tree itself, lamenting the possible impact on biodiversity.

"The company ATS (could) spend three days cutting it up, which is rather alarming.

"This shouldn't happen, especially (with) oak wood which has an incredible amount of biodiversity associated with it...especially a tree of that age," she said.

"It's not the council's fault that the tree came down and I'm sure their sad. But it will cost them a fortune to cut it up," she added.

RBK were contacted for comment.