THE parents of a woman crushed to death by a diseased tree have welcomed Oxford City Council's decision to fell 50 infected horse chestnuts within a month.

An audit of 1,629 trees by arboricultural experts has revealed that 475 require attention and 179 need to be chopped down.

But 50 are so badly diseased experts said they posed a safety risk and needed to be felled almost immediately.

Over the next three years specialists will check 32,000 trees across the city and record their health for the first time.

Those found to be decayed will be chopped down while others will be reduced in size, pruned or just regularly monitored.

The announcement comes five years after 22-year-old Angela Regoczy was killed when a diseased horse chesnut fell on her parked car in Gloucester Street, Oxford, in October, 2002.

Miss Regoczy had graduated from Portsmouth University just three months earlier.

Last night, her parents Victor and Denise Regoczy, said a risk assessment of trees should have been carried out sooner.

Mr Regoczy said: "The question remains why did it take so long and why was there no register in place.

"The tree was simply forgotten, that's the bottom line.

"What I can't say is let's forget it, let's forgive - you don't forget and you don't forgive.

"In 1999 the tree was identified as being diseased and to be removed within two years. And in 2002 the tree fell.

"I have to recognise the city council is doing it right this time and I hope every council in the country will do the same.

"It can't be a surprise so many are diseased. It's only a surprise this sort of work has not been done before.

"Following this they will have a register, but it should have been done sooner - no question."

The city council said most of the 50 diseased trees were found in and around Cutteslowe Park, Wolvercote Cemetery and Sunnymead Recreation Park.

The trees have what is known as Phytoftera, a root-rotting disease, more commonly found in species in the south east of England.

All felled trees will be replaced after the Town Hall agreed to "re-prioritise its resources".

Tree expert Ian Barrow, of St Albans-based Bartlett Tree Care, which is undertaking the £60,000 citywide survey, said: "The ones we have been assessing in the park are predominantly horse chesnut and they are suffering from a root rotting disease.

"You can't just pussy foot around, do trimming, and say 'that's okay'."

Last November, 11 trees in East Street, Osney Island, were controversially felled because they were deemed a safety hazard.

City councillor Caroline van Zyl, executive member for sustainable environment, said: "We have insisted all the tree management work is carried out sensitively and safely with felling being the very last option.

"No one wants to cut down trees but it will not surprise anyone to learn trees do require regular maintenance."