Tree campaigners fear they could be left destitute after Sheffield Council confirmed it will pursue them for more than £150,000 in legal costs and damages. Chris Burn reports.
http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/sheffield-council-to-pursue-tree-campaigners-for-damages-and-150-000-legal-costs-1-8704687

Sheffield Lib Dem Leader, Shaffaq Mohammed made a statement about the High Court’s tree ruling…

Today, the High Court ruled to allow Sheffield City Council to threaten peaceful protesters with possible imprisonment.

Whilst this ruling applies to tree protesters in this case, it sets a deeply worrying precedent for the future. I fear that from now on, each time the Council faces opposition to controversial policies they will be able to silence that opposition with the threat of legal action.

As a liberal I find this deeply uncomfortable. The leader of the Council, Julie Dore, and Cabinet member responsible, Bryan Lodge, may want to play this down but there is no question that tens of thousands of Sheffield’s residents are unhappy with the actions of the Council with regards to tree felling, yet they have pushed on in the face of reasoned opposition.

Only a few years ago I led the campaign to save Sheffield’s community libraries. This involved standing outside Sheffield’s libraries gathering signatures. If something like this was to happen again – would the Council be prepared to take me to court?

Labour party members and the thousands of people that voted Labour a couple of months ago should be questioning if this is what a Labour Council now stands for. Sheffield City Council have taken its own citizens to court, threatening their homes and livelihoods because they don’t agree with their actions.

This is something that is very close to my heart. Rustlings Road was one of the first campaigns I worked on when I was re-elected onto the Council in 2015. Little did I know at the time that it would turn into such a big international story with people all over the world having an opinion. But I want to know how you feel. Please use the form below and let me know what you think. Are you happy with the direction of our city? Where do we go from here? Do you want to protect our right to peaceful protest?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Shaffaq Mohammed
Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Sheffield City Council

http://www.shefflibdems.org.uk/update_sheffields_trees

Around 1,000 trees are to be axed in Sheffield by the end of the year – with 500 already gone since the start of legal action against protesters last month.

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/sheffield-council-to-accelerate-felling-of-500-trees-after-high-court-victory-1-8704679

Residents report feeling better and having fewer health problems when there are more trees on their street, a new study has found.

An online health survey of 31,109 residents living in the Canadian city of Toronto was combined with high-resolution satellite imagery and tree data. The research was published in Scientific Reports on Thursday.  More below. 

https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/10/more-trees-on-your-street-means-fewer-health-problems-says-study

Summary Of Results

Sheffield Council has now released all of the Independent Tree Panel’s recommendations, as well as its own response to those recommendations.

Adding these to the previously released information, here are the final summary statistics:

150 roads were referred to the ITP, and on these roads there were 802 trees for consideration.

Of the 802 trees:

• 44 (5.5%) were dead or had already been removed;
• 130 (16.2%) were dying or diseased so the ITP agreed with their removal;
• 628 (78.3%) were perfectly healthy so the ITP seriously considered them.

Of the 628 healthy trees the ITP recommended:

• Saving 307 of them (48.9%), suggesting using one of the 14 free engineering solutions;
• Saving a further 5 trees (0.8%) as special cases (The Vernon Road Oak, the Chelsea Road Elm, a “rare” Italian Alder on Kenbourne Road, a “magnificent” London Plane on Vainor Road), and one on Spring Hill Road, using one of the additional engineering solutions;
• Felling 316 of them (50.3%) as the damage to the road or pavement was too substantial

Of the 312 trees that the ITP recommended saving, the Council ignored them on 237 trees (76% of the time).

Of the 75 trees “saved” by the ITP process, five trees were incorrectly identified or listed by Amey and were therefore administrative errors, so 69 are “genuine saves”.  Nearly all were listed as “temporary” reprieves.

In nearly all cases where the Council decided to ignore ITP recommendations to save, they have been vague about why, and have seemingly accepted Amey advice, unquestioned.

Extrapolating these numbers across the 6000 trees being felled in the first five years of the 25 year PFI contract:

• 4698 would have been healthy, 1302 would have been dead, dying, diseased, or already removed
• 2335 of the 6000 trees are being unnecessarily felled

In summary:

• Despite the lack of transparency, the ITP do at least seem to be partly independent;
• The Council have questionable engineering expertise, and so are pretty much forced to accept Amey advice above the ITP advice;
• So far the process has only saved 75 trees (9.4%) out of the 802 considered, only 70 of which (8.7%) is a genuine saving.
• The process has cost the Council over £1 million in contract penalties as a result of the delays it has caused. If only that money had actually been spent on saving trees using proper pragmatic solutions.

(as of 01.08.2017)

Campaigners and Sheffield City Council face a two week wait to hear if a High Court judge has granted injunctions against tree felling protesters. The local authority is taking legal action over continued protests against the chopping down of thousands of trees in the city as part of a two BILLION pound roads and streets improvement programme. The High Court in Leeds today heard the last of the evidence and legal submissions on the third day of the case. Mr Justice Males said he would reserve judgement on the case. His ruling is likely to be given in the High Court in London in around two weeks. Mr Justice Males indicated that if he was minded to grant injunctions against protesters, it was likely he would not impose them immediately to allow campaigners to appeal.

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/campaigners-and-sheffield-city-council-chiefs-face-wait-for-ruling-on-tree-protest-injuctions-1-8674997x