Storm Lilian causes disruption across the Bradford district

A yellow weather warning was issued by the Met Office as gale-force winds felled trees, damaged property, disrupted flights and caused chaos for this weekend’s Leeds Festival.

A section of a tree in City Park fell on Friday morning (Image: Newsquest)

More than 80 trees fell across Bradford.

At midday on Friday, Bradford Council reported its crews were working to deal with the fallen trees, as well as damage caused to properties.

Bradford Council had received reports of 80 fallen trees by midday (Image: Newsquest)

A council spokesperson said: “Our teams have received reports of over 80 fallen trees and damage to properties across the district. They are working hard, prioritising and dealing with them as quickly as possible but it may take a while for everything to be cleared.

“Our main priorities when dealing with severe weather is the safety of our residents and keeping the highways clear for emergency services.

“It is also taking longer than usual for our waste collection crews to empty bins in affected areas and we ask that residents bear with us.”

Strong wind gusts blew trees sideways at Keighley Tarn (Image: T&A Camera Club - Josephine Fleming)

Among those was the large limb on one of the trees in City Park next to Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court which was blown off by strong winds.

A large section of a tree fell across Allerton Road, as it split away from the main trunk and fell onto the road badly damaging the railings on top of a wall.

A tree fell across Allerton Road damaging a railing (Image: UGC)

A fallen tree also blocked a major road in Wibsey, with one traffic alert saying that St Enoch's Road was blocked both ways between Southfield Lane and Watty Hall Road.

A large tree blocked Broadway Walk in Horsforth (Image: UGC)

The T&A also received reports of a large fallen tree blocking the road on Broadway Walk in Horsforth and a tree down near the junction of North Street and Cavendish Street in Keighley town centre.

One man, who lives just off Clayton Road in Bradford, reported that a large tree branch had fallen on his car causing damage. A tree also fell onto Maythorne Drive in Clayton.

A tree fell on Maythorne Drive in Clayton (Image: UGC)

But it was not just trees but property too - strong winds blew the mobile covers for the wicket at Queensbury Cricket Club over a wall and onto Old Guy Road.

Covers at Queensbury Cricket Club blew onto Old Guy Road (Image: UGC)

Flights across England were affected by the strong winds though Leeds Bradford Airport only had to cancel or divert three flights.

A spokesperson for the airport said: "While strong winds were experienced this morning, only three flights were cancelled or diverted.

"The airport has experienced only minor delays with very limited disruption to the overall schedule.

"Operations are currently running as usual, with planes boarding and taking off."

The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning on Thursday for Bradford and most of the north of England.

The Press Association reported that parts of the UK were hit by gusts of up to 70mph.

Winds wreaked havoc at Leeds Festival (Image: @decomcfc / PA)

Leeds Festival lost two stages on Friday due to strong winds.

In an announcement on X, formerly Twitter, Reading and Leeds Festivals issued an “urgent weather report”, warning attendees to stay in their tents if they are already on-site and urging others on their way to delay their arrival.

Organisers at Leeds said: “We have definitely lost the BBC Radio 1 stage today, and there will be no performances on it.

“We have also lost the Aux stage today, and there will be no performances on it.

“We remain hopeful that everything else will continue as planned and that we will still have an amazing weekend.”

Carrie Gill, 19, an attendee of Leeds Festival, said she was experiencing the “worst day ever” as her tent had been destroyed and her group had asked to leave their area for several hours because the windy conditions were “really bad”.

By 4pm, Leeds Festival announced it had opened its main area but also had to close the Chevron stage.

The storm also disrupted power supplies. Nearly 64,000 Northern Powergrid customers were affected by 10am on Friday, with the worst affected area being West Yorkshire.

Northern Powergrid said its teams responded quickly and had managed to reconnect over 27,000 customers of those who had been impacted by 10am.

Louise Lowes, director of customer Service at Northern Powergrid, said: “Our main priorities are to deal with emergency situations as quickly as possible, supporting our customers and ensure our people can work safely as soon as the conditions allow.”

Trains were delayed, cancelled, or revised right across Bradford, West Yorkshire and the whole region due to Storm Lilian.

Northern Rail said: "Due to severe weather some lines are blocked."

It added: "Due to severe weather throughout the day, various train lines across the Northern network will be disrupted and may be delayed or amended/cancelled at short notice.

"Passengers are advised to avoid travelling if you can where possible due to major disruption, as you may be heavily delayed."