A DRIVING instructor whose car was written off after a large tree branch fell on it while she was teaching on a road through Epping Forest says she has been left with thousands of pounds in debt because the council responsible for maintaining the trees has refused to accept liability reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

Louisa Judge, from Hainault, says she is more than £13,000 in debt because the City of London Corporation, which manages Epping Forest, has denied all responsibility for what happened. The City of London Corporation said that, in this case, an assessment by its insurers found that it was not liable.

Video footage captured after the incident shows the self-employed 64-year-old’s blue Ford Fiesta badly damaged near the Wakes Arms roundabout. A report from the City of London Corporation shows the authority knew the tree needed surgery within a year of its December 2, 2024, inspection.

“I can’t get through to anyone, and they won’t talk to me,” Louisa said, “I never asked for thousands of pounds. I just wanted my costs covered. I have lost a lot of money. And I feel I’m the only one who has financially had to pay out.”

She said she did not claim against her own insurance policy because her insurance company said it would not pay for a dual-control car. She calculated the cost of a hire car over Christmas at about £900 a week.

She said: “For three weeks, that was going to cost me nearly £3,000 just to hire a car until I got myself sorted out.”

Louisa felt that claiming against herself would have meant she would have had to pay for her own dual control – hers was worth about £5,000.

“Honestly, in my head I thought they would do the right thing, and that’s why I didn’t claim against myself,” she said.

Her son, Barnaby, is very angry about the way his mother has been treated and insists that the City of London Corporation has a responsibility to do something about trees as soon as they pose a public safety risk.

He said it took five men to lift the oak branch off the car, which only escaped more serious damage because of the triangular learner sign on its roof.

He said: “My mum is in such a dire financial situation because of this now; she can’t afford to do anything. We grew up in a council house. Mum was on benefits. She taught herself how to be a driving instructor. She’s never going to be able to retire, but she had a small amount of savings, so if she couldn’t work for a day or wanted to take a day off, she had money. That’s gone now.”

A spokesperson for the City of London Corporation, which manages Epping Forest as a registered charity, said: “We carry out regular inspections of our trees, and take any necessary action within the expected timeframes and to industry standards. In this case, an assessment by our insurers found we were not liable. We recognise and regret the impact this unfortunate incident has had on Ms Judge.”