Southend-on-Sea city councillor and Conservative leader, James Courtenay, shared his condolences and well-wishes for the little girl in hospital. He said he had been visiting the park for the past 40 years and had memories of playing near the tree. "When I was a child I remember it having wooden supports back in the 1990s," he said. He added it had since had metal bars supporting it for many years. Players from Westcliff Cricket Club were some of the first to rush over and attempt to lift the tree after it fell. Mr Courtenay said: "It really must have taken half the cricket team with others to move it. "It's absolutely huge branches for a tree that's hundreds of years old."