A CAIRNS woman whose house and garden shed were badly damaged by falling trees during Monday's downpour says the council is to blame.

Denyse Hite, who lives in her demountable house at a Brinsmead caravan park with husband Brian, yesterday accused Cairns Regional Council of failing to listen to her warnings that the trees were diseased and dangerous and should be removed.

Weeks after she first reported her concerns, council officers inspected the trees on Monday morning and told her "not to worry".

Soon after, one of the trees toppled over, sending it and several others smashing into her house and her neighbour's carport.

"I am so upset, my bedroom has a 3m open-air skylight," Ms Hite told The Cairns Post as she tried to come to grips with the damage yesterday.

"It squashed my garden shed and the two rear bedrooms have large holes and the ceiling is splintered."

Ms Hite said there had been concerns about the trees along Freshwater Ck, which backs on
to where she lives, for some time and that the council usually cut them back every few years.

Before Christmas, she reported the diseased trees to the Environmental Protection Agency and was advised to immediately contact the council as some of the trees would come down and on to her house "in the next big blow".

Ms Hite contacted the council again after the trees crashed through her house and says she was told by a council officer that if she put in a letter of demand, the damage payments would be taken care of.

Yesterday, another officer told her that was not the case.

To add to her confusion, Ms Hite said her local councillor Linda Cooper had sent her a message saying the officer "had no right" to make that decision and that a letter of demand was in order.

"I do not know which way to turn," Ms Hite said.

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