Controversial tree-felling work in Sheffield has been temporarily paused after clashes during protests.
South Yorkshire Police has received allegations of assaults from both demonstrators and staff working for city council contractor Amey, which is involved in the removal and replacement of thousands of street trees in the city as part of a £2.2bn Streets Ahead highways improvement project for Sheffield City Council.
There have been repeated clashes on Meersbrook Park Road for more than one week. It comes after Amey brought in a “specially-trained stewarding team” to remove protesters going inside safety zones around trees that are due to be felled earlier this month.
Some 20 trees on the road were referred to an Independent Tree Panel set up by the council which said 11 could be saved through engineering works. But Sheffield Council overturned the decision in nine cases and only two were retained.
A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Police said: “We have received a number of allegations of assault in relation to this matter. Police are now reviewing these reports. Enquiries are ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact 101. We can’t take crime reports over social media.”
Streets Ahead account director Darren Butt said work had now been stopped because of concerns about staff safety. “We welcome safe and peaceful protest but unfortunately this is not what we experienced in Meersbrook Park Road on Monday. In the interests of everyone’s safety we withdrew from site, and we will resume as soon as we can ensure the safety of our staff, local people and the protestors themselves. “Re-planting certain street trees which are ailing or damaging is one of the ways we deliver the council’s legal duty to maintain the city’s highways, which is why a High Court injunction is in place to keep our working areas safe.
“We urge people to respect peaceful communities and not to wilfully obstruct our works on the highway by staying outside the safety zones, so we can complete this programme for the benefit of everyone in Sheffield.”
Around 5,500 trees have been removed and replaced with saplings in the city since 2012 but campaigners argue that many of the removals are unnecessary.
Tree campaigners have alleged that Amey staff have been using force against demonstrators.
Paul Brooke, a member of the Save Gleadless Valley Trees Group, said: “The people that live in Meersbrook Park Road voted overwhelmingly to save the healthy street trees that make such a big difference to their wellbeing.
“Amey seem prepared to go to any length to enforce this misguided contract, even though experts across the country say there’s no practical or economic need to do so. But the harder they push the more determined we all become to oppose this destruction.”
Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh called earlier this week for the work on Meersbrook Park Road to be halted because of the ‘completely unsustainable’ situation.
She said: “The daily events on Meersbrook Park Road are deeply distressing for local residents and those walking through the area and the park alike. I am therefore calling on the Council to cease felling until the ITP decisions have been reviewed, all options reconsidered and there has been full disclosure of any and all final decisions to fell.”
The PFI contract between Sheffield City Council and Amey, a Spanish multinational corporation, is a disaster. The public have not been allowed to see this 25-year contract to maintain Sheffield streets, pavements and trees, but we have been able to see its effects. Againstthe advice of expert after expert, healthy trees across the city are being felled for no good reason. Public opposition is so strong that arborists are being hired to stealthily chop down branchesin the pre-dawn hours, even over private property against occupiers’ expressed wishes. Dozens of out-of-town security forces have been repeatedly brought in and givenapparent free reinto useviolence on peaceful pensionerstrying desperately to save the beloved healthy trees on their own streets. Week after week and month after month, the battle just keeps escalating. Tree-fellings have been conducted so unsafely that the Health and Safety Executive hasissued a Notice of Contraventionciting multiple violations of Health and Safety Legislation. Such notices are only issued in cases of a serious breach. And even many of the much-needed pavement repairs have proven to be of terrible quality. Within weeks of their being laid down, plants grew through the pavement in many places. Once the weather turned cold, we learned that thenew pavement — for the sake of which these healthy trees are supposedly being killed — is far more dangerously slippery than the old pavement.
The National Labour Party has apolicy of opposing PFIs. Council leader Julie Dorehas declaredthat the council would consider bringing the Amey contract in house if possible. And yet, the council has consistently failed to enter into meaningful negotiations with tree campaigners, and indeed has escalated its actions against them. The only explanation that would seem to make sense of this is that the council feels trapped by the contract, unable to withdraw or even to suggest changes in light of clear evidence that the planned tree fellings are unnecessary and the pavements are of poor quality.
Given the disastrous implementation of this contract, and the Labour Party’s opposition to PFIs, one would expect the council to eagerly embrace a way of escaping the contract. That’s just what the research of Richard Davis, a health and safety professional, has handed them.Davis has learnedthat Amey made several false declarations during the bidding process, about crucial matters: they made three false declarations, regarding “acts of grave misconduct”, criminal convictions, and pending criminal legal proceedings. Because breaches of health and safety law are criminal matters and acts of grave misconduct, they should have said ‘yes’ when queried about these but they said ‘no’. This was not about a minor health and safety matter.It was about the death of one of their workers in a cherry picker, a matter very relevant to the tree work in Sheffield. According to Davis’s research, thesefalse declarationsmean (due to the Misrepresentation Act) that the contract with Amey can be declared null and void (“rescinded”), and thereforeterminated with no penalty. Much of this information has now beenpublished in the Yorkshire Post.
So how has the council responded to this information that would apparently allow them to terminate the contract at no cost? Have they embraced the chance to bring the contract in house, in line with their party’s anti-PFI policy? Entered into negotiations which could bring an end to the horrible and violent scenes occurring more and more often on the streets of Sheffield, as paid security forces assault peaceful campaigners?
Sadly, they have not. When asked by the Yorkshire Post,the council responded by claiming that Amey had made a full declaration about the fatality, despite the clear evidence against this. Richard Davis explains: “In the first instance, the council stated (via a Freedom of Information request) that they had no record of having been informed by Amey, only to backpedal and contradict themselves in a later email from Paul Billington stating that they became aware of the incident when it was reported by the media in 2011 — a discovery made by pure chance some two and a half yearsafterit should have been declared.” And yet they are still utterly refusing to consider an end to this contract.
Instead, the council is doubling down on its hostility to residents seeking to protect the beloved trees on their streets. This week, we have seen an escalation oflast week’s assaults on peaceful residentstrying to save their trees. There isa videoclearly showing a security person punching a protestor as police stand by, not intervening.It has reached the point where even the council’s own party is beginning to turn on them. Gleadless Constituency Labour Party has adopted aunanimous statementcondemning the tree felling programme and Labour MP and Shadow Policing Minister Louise Haigh (who may have been able to hear the cries of pain from her office window) hascalled for the felling programme to stop.
Why is the council continuing to support Amey over its citizens, even apparently licensing the use of violence on peaceful pensioners? Why are they fighting so hard to defend an apparently fraudulent contract which is producing work of terrible quality? We have no idea. We can only hope that someone soon comes to their senses.
To: Cllr Julie Dore
Leader of Sheffield City Council
Cc Cllr Alison Teal
Cllr Cliff Woodcraft
Sheffield Star News Desk
Dear Councillor Dore
Formal Complaint against Sheffield City Council
You will be aware that I have written to John Mothersole (CEO Sheffield City Council), Chris Grayling (Secretary of State for Transport) and Marcus Jones (Minister for Local government) pointing out discrepancies in contract data and payments and expressing the view that it is time to call the Auditors in on the PFI contract with Amey Hallam Highways Ltd.
I now wish to make a formal complaint against Sheffield City Council for;
• blocking public scrutiny of the PFI Highways contract.
• publishing false information;
• breaching the Local Government Transparency Code 2015.
If you intend to investigate the matter I can provide further details and will co-operate with any investigation. In the meantime, here is something to start with.
Blocking public scrutiny of the PFI Highways contract.
Sheffield City Council has been reviewing that contract since 2012 with a view to publishing much of it. When asked, the public are informed that it is intended for future publication. More than 5 years have now passed.
My findings indicate that Amey Hallam Highways Ltd has misreported work and as a result may have been overpaid by millions of pounds. If those findings are confirmed then public office holders have some questions to answer.
Public officer holders are not immune from section 3 of the Fraud Act 2006 ‘Fraud by failing to disclose information.’ Basic due diligence should have picked up on the road resurfacing and other discrepancies long before I found them. More openness and better transparency would have revealed these issues earlier.
Publishing false information [including statements made by public office holders
There are many examples to choose from but for the sake of brevity, I will limit myself to one example at this time – reporting of PFI highways contract value. Here is a summary:
Example of false information
Since 2012, Sheffield City Council has falsely reported the contract value of the PFI contract with Amey Hallam Highways Ltd. the actual value of which is reported to be £2.2bn.
• Council minutes (July 2012) record contract value as £2bn.
• The most recent data sheet for the contract on the council’s website (last updated October 2017) states contract value is £2bn and that figure appears elsewhere on the council’s website.
• A member of the public asked an FoI in 2015 and was told the contract value was £2bn.
Understandably, the media has now widely reported the contract as being £2bn when it should allegedly have been £2.2bn. The discrepancies do not stop there. The Transparency Code requires that councils publish details of contracts.
• The value recorded for the PFI Highways contract on website version of Sheffield’s contract register is £1.2bn.
• The value recorded for the contract YORTender is also £1.2bn
I enquired about the discrepancy on the contract register and was told it was a typo. £ 1 billion is a large typo especially on a high profile contract. I was told the error had been corrected. I just checked. No it hasn’t.
Whilst the council is not responsible for what is reported by the media it does have a responsibility to ensure source data is correct. We all make mistakes but making them repeatedly over a number of years and failing to detect them does not instil confidence.
Breaches of Local Government Transparency Code
The Code requires Councils to publish certain data in a specified time scale. Sheffield City Council has failed to do that. They under reported expenditure to Amey Hallam Highways Ltd (and other suppliers) and failed to detect basic errors and omissions in the published data. Here is a summary of the breaches detected so far including the sections of the Code that were breached.
• Failure to report payments to suppliers on time (s27)
• Failure to report credit notes (s28)
• Failure to include irrecoverable VAT (s29)
• Failure to report Government Procurement Card spend (s30)
• Failure to follow LGA (Open data) guidance (bad date and amount formats)
• July 2016: Expenditure under reported by £39.1m
• December 2016: November data duplicated in error
• March 2017: Suppliers names redacted in error (89% of all names)
• Failure to notify public of errors in published data (s24)
• Failure to have robust information management processes in place (s23)
It should not have been left to a member of the public to point out such failings and errors. It raises the question that if published data contains so many problems what about the unpublished contract data on which payments are made.
A Sheffield MP has called on council contractors to halt tree felling pending further investigation.
Louise Haigh, MP for Heeley, said situation on Meersbrook Park Road is ‘completely unsustainable’ as the area becomes the latest flashpoint between tree protesters and council contractors.
Protesters have staged demonstrations across Sheffield since council contractor Amey started felling trees as part of a £2.2 billion road improvement programme.
Amey have previously said ‘specially-trained stewards’ would remove anyone who wilfully obstructed the work of arborists.
Some 20 trees on the road were referred to the Independent Tree Panel which said 11 could be saved through engineering works.
But Sheffield Council overturned the decision on nine cases and only two were retained.
Ms Haigh, whose constituency includes Meersbrook Park Road, claims the ‘varied’ and ‘unsatisfactory’ responses to overturning the the ITP recommendations has ‘contributed to the anger’ in the community.
Ms Haigh said: “This morning I’ve been down to Meersbrook Park Road, following numerous complaints and after seeing the videos of the conflict taking place on a daily basis. The situation is completely unsustainable.
“Meersbrook Park Road is a particular cause for concern due to the significant number of trees on the road which were contested by the Independent Tree Panel. Having viewed the Council’s response to the ITP recommendations, the reasons given by the Council are varied and in some cases unsatisfactory. “The daily events on Meersbrook Park Road are deeply distressing for local residents and those walking through the area and the park alike. I am therefore calling on the Council to cease felling until the ITP decisions have been reviewed, all options reconsidered and there has been full disclosure of any and all final decisions to fell.”
The council says the trees are either dead, dying, diseased, dangerous or damaging the highway. But campaigners say many healthy trees are being felled for profit.
Things are turning very ugly very fast in the battle to destroy the healthy trees of Sheffield. Last week we learned from BBC Radio that “new tactics” would be used against Sheffield’s tree protectors. These tactics have so far turned out to include violence, spurious arrests, and what seems to be deliberate misinformation about the injunction that has been issued against certain forms of protest. More below
Another week, another escalation by Sheffield Council and Amey.
Felling and “Reasonable Force”
This week began with them taking to the media announcing that they had been allowed to start using “reasonable force” to remove campaigners from blocking felling. What this has seemed to mean in reality is that the security guards have used some pretty questionable force to remove campaigners from insider the barriers. Not only that, but after an absence of 11 months, the Police are now attending felling sites and twice in the last 8 days made arrests. There is reason to believe that both the Police and the security guards are acting illegally and/or unreasonably, and these legal avenues are being explored.
Despite this further escalation, campaigners have shown ever more bravery in their attempts to peacefully prevent felling. Events this week focused on Meersbrook Park Road S6 (pictures here say a 1000 words, thanks Luis!) and some incredible bravery and ingenuity meant that over the course of 5 days only 4 trees were felled, two of which had been part felled already.
Whilst most felling crews were tied up there, other crews were circling the city for “hit and run” felling attempts. Dedicated campaigners across Nether Edge and elsewhere (Aldam Rd, Chatsworth Rd, both S17, Sackville Rd S10) in the city prevented these attempts valiantly.
This week ended with two pieces of news which we can now reveal for the first time.
Tree Preservation Order (TPO):
The first is that key campaign individuals have been, since September, working with DEFRA and DCLG to see if we can have a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) put on all 36,000 Sheffield street trees, given the lack of careful management being shown by Sheffield Council and Amey. You may or may not be aware that the right to impose TPOs has until now only been thought to be able to be done by Local Authorities. Actually, the 1993 legislation allows central government to do so also, if it feels that the Local Authority is not acting as it should. This part of the legislation has never actually been used in reality, and isn’t known about by many people. However DEFRA/DCLG seriously considered our application over a period of nine weeks, receiving multiple pieces of advice from their departmental solicitors. In the end, the advice Ministers received was that whilst they could impose the TPO, Highways Act legislation overrides TPOs when it comes to street trees. So there would likely have been a big court battle that cost central government significant amounts of money, only to lose. You can see the excellent evidence based application document for the TPO which campaigners submitted at the following link:
The evidence in it really is a treasure trove if you’ve never looked into some of the details of the campaign before.
Despite the TPO not being granted, the links we have made with DEFRA and the trust we have built with them is very strong, and they continue to support the campaign, aghast at the actions of Sheffield Council and Amey. We are supporting each other in a number of ways.
The saddest thing is just how constrained central government is when it comes to areas of responsibility devolved to the local level (such as highways and trees). We think the average person thinks that central government presides over everything, when the reality is very different, with local government presiding unchecked on many matters.
Yorkshire Post Amey Conviction Non Disclosure Article:
In other positive news, many of you might have seen that we have finally been able to publish in the media this story:
Huge thanks to the Yorkshire Post for doing some proper investigative journalism and confirming all the evidence campaigners had collated over the course of 14 months to bring this shocking tale.
In summary, Amey broke contract law when bidding for the PFI contract by failing to disclose information about an ongoing investigation into a health and safety violation related death, and then again when this investigation resulted in a conviction. By breaking the law, it invalidates the contract, and so Sheffield Council are entitled to terminate the contract without penalties. But they are choosing not to. There is more to come on this story….
Acorn Group Ltd Arb Association Accreditiation Saga:
For the avoidance of doubt, the eco vandals Acorn felling our healthy streets in Sheffield are NOT approved by the Arboricultural Association, but have been misleading Sheffield residents for a number of years by displaying the Arboricultural Accreditation badge on their vans. This was removed this week and was followed up by this statement. We like the reference to a “moral choice”, not sure how that aligns to a company senselessly felling healthy mature street trees!
One of our supports has asked to include the following appeal in this update:
I wonder if you could publicise in your email to encourage people to complain about the No Parking notices. I have complained again this morning with a view to escalating this to the Ombudsman. A complaint has to go to the Council first and then to the Ombudsman if no action taken. I enclose a copy of my wording if anyone wants to use this as the basis for their compliant.
“Dear Sir/Madam I would like to make a formal complaint about your abuse of power in relation to the continued display of No Parking Notices on ………. Road. These notices have been placed on at least …….. occasions now, the current one running from 19th January for 8 days. This is the second notice that continues over a weekend. This has caused me considerable disruption (reorganising building works and deliveries), inconvenience, uncertainty and stress. There has been no work carried out on this road as stated in the notices and this appears now to be a blanket policy of displaying No Parking Notices for no good reason. As such you are causing me unacceptable disruption through your maladministration and casual abuse of powers. Please let me know within 5 days how you propose to deal with this formal complaint”
We think this is a good idea, so please take the time to make these complaints to streetsahead@amey.co.uk
French poet on the steets
There has been a passionate French poet (Benoit) on the streets this week, sharing his heartfelt passion on how he feels about the controversial healthy street tree removals in Sheffield:
This is Acorn’s van demonstrating their version of environmental management, it has been reported!
Next Meeting:
An early heads up for the next Save Nether Edge Trees public meeting. As usual it’s upstairs in the Banner Cross Pub, on Monday 27th January. Arrive at 7.45pm for an 8pm prompt start.
Tree campaigners in Sheffield believe the city council may be able to terminate a controversial PFI contract linked to the felling of thousands of street trees free of charge.
Many of you will be aware that we have been up to something with government ministers. Sadly, this time round the scheme did not work, but not for want of trying.
We submitted a City wide Tree Preservation Order for all Sheffield Street Trees to Sajid Javid, Minister for Communities and Local Government and Michael Gove took up the case for us with his colleague,
They took a very positive attitude and leaned on SCC to respond to the plan although SCC, predictably, were not interested in discussion. Mr Javid asked us to keep this confidential while it was being discussed.
However after a long examination the Ministers’ advisors concluded that Highway law is stronger than tree law and they were unlikely to succeed in imposing the order. Both ministries recognise that something needs to be done and Michael Gove at DEFRA has not given up in his efforts to seek a solution.
Big credit is due to Robin Ridley and Rebecca Hammond who worked with me on the proposal, and Paul Selby who looked after the difficult work of liason with the ministries. Each action we take moves us forward and makes SCC’s position weaker.
I really am so heartbroken at what is happening on Meersbrook Park Road (S17) and around my city. These trees have not been lost; they have been taken. Taken from all of us; each and every single life is unequivocally worse off without each and every single tree.
I am truly disgusted at the actions of Sheffield City Council and a corporation who use intimidation and physical harm in the name of profit. But I am not just heartbroken for the trees that have been taken from us; I am for those who have faced force when they offered peace, who have been challenged with fear when they offered respect and who have been hurt by greed when they gave care with no fee. To all of you, I thank you. I cannot be there with you but know that I have love for each and every single one of you for protecting the life of these beautiful trees, the rights we have in our society to speak up and protest against the intimidation and force of those who seek to oppress in the name of profit and control, and for representing all of us who cannot be there with you.
SCC and Amey are lying; that is a fact. That is not hyperbole, it’s not the statement of an “overly emotional tree hugger”, or even an opinion; it is a FACT.
You are making a difference. You are affecting social change. You are glorious and WE are proud. Thank you
Shockingly blatant propaganda video being circulated
The other day (15th January) Amey PLC published a little video on their YouTube account under the title “The protesters have no respect for democracy”. You won’t find it by searching Amey’s YouTube page: you can only access it via the link. But within a couple of hours of it being published, some Sheffield Labour councillors (including Cabinet member Jack Scott, and Councillor Robert Johnson) had shared the link on Twitter.
It doesn’t take much background knowledge to realise that the video, and its message, don’t stand up to scrutiny. So let’s take a look.
The video features three people who claim to have been intimidated by nasty protesters: They are presented as being “ordinary citizens” of Sheffield, but how ordinary are they?
The first couple interviewed (named in the video as “Mr and Mrs Howe”) live in Millhouses, near one of the most polluted junctions in Sheffield, and the tree outside their house was listed for felling due to pavement damage. In this video they make claims about the damage it had previously caused to their cellar, but that was never mentioned as a reason for felling by SCC or Amey: just the pavement.
Campaigners report that when they tried to protect the tree from felling, this particular couple were extremely unpleasant to them. They report that ”Mrs Howe”, in particular, was very vocal, shouting and swearing at people who were just quietly stood watching. People tried to have reasonable conversations with them. One campaigner, David Glass (a very calm and peaceful man) said “I have personally tried to speak to [her] in a calm respectful conciliatory apologetic way but she was determined to accuse me of being intimidating when she came out to shout her accusations in my face.”
When people tried to discuss the alleged cellar damage (now repaired), this couple said that a builder (a relative) had blamed the tree. In an interview with BBC Look North (they seem to be the go-to couple for anti-tree interviews) they again mentioned that the tree roots were to blame. But they never mentioned any report from a Structural Engineer. Suddenly, in this video from Amey, they say they have a report. Perhaps they might be willing to show it to one of the local newspapers to support their claims.
But even before the tree-fellers and tree-protectors arrived on their street, this pair had seemingly already nailed their colours to the mast. ”J. Howe” had written to the Star demanding that the Council should reclaim our streets from campaigners (original letter not online, but responses here and here).
Television interviews, letters, and verbal abuse are strange behaviours to observe in people who claim to have been intimidated.
Enough of these two. What about man they interview on his own, named as “Mr Baker”? He gave a very confused account. He describes rudeness from a workman doing an inventory of trees, and somehow blames campaigners for this. We know of no contractors doing tree inventories who are also a part of the tree campaign. We can understand that he would have been upset by the bad language used by the contractor, but that’s no reason to blame the tree campaign.
Now let’s turn our attention to the film footage that was used, which was collected for security and surveillance purposes. Should this even be in the public domain? Our understanding is that according to the surveillance protocols/policies that SCC have provided in response to FOI requests, such footage should be held securely and only used for purposes of legal evidence. Publishing it online in this manner is therefore in conflict with those protocols. This isn’t the first time that security footage has been published, as a photograph was passed to The Star a few months ago.
And finally, the editing.
The footage gives a very incomplete picture of events — e.g. a knife is mentioned, but there was no knife. The footage does not show any of the many assaults that have been committed by security staff and arborists. It doesn’t mention that tree protectors attend streets at the request of residents who want help to save their trees. It doesn’t mention that many thousands of people have signed petitions (you’ll find many of them here) asking for our street trees to be saved, whereas a petition calling on the Council to stop accepting tree petitions gained only 8 signatures. It doesn’t mention that the Household Survey has been criticised as a “denial of democracy” by expert statisticians. It doesn’t mention that the majority of the Independent Tree Panel’s advice was over-ridden by Amey. It doesn’t mention how debate and discussion of the street tree massacre is shut down in Council meetings and on social media, thus stifling the process of scrutiny and accountability that should be present for democracy to be truly democratic.
So why were Amey, a multinational company, trying to tell Sheffield citizens about democracy, and why were Labour councillors the first to share it?
Perhaps the answer lies in the £2.2 billion contract. Perhaps they’re trying to distract us from the issue. Perhaps the video is an ill-disguised attempt at propaganda. Perhaps they don’t want us to talk about the fact that thousands of healthy street trees have been, and will continue to be, felled for no good reason. Perhaps they don’t want us to ask why they’re so busy spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on legal action, security personnel, and overtime. Perhaps they don’t want us to ask why they’re doing that instead of renegotiating the contract to save the trees. Perhaps Amey and Sheffield City Council hiding something.
During the day on 16th January, the title of the video was changed to ”A residents’ [sic] view”.
THIS WEEK – Amazing, Inspiring and not much luck for Amey!I
t’s been a hectic and sometimes stressful week but not discouraging and very few trees were felled, again. Great business for Acorn who are paid by the day regardless of results. At this rate they have jobs for life
Aggressive tree felling re-commenced in the early hours on Monday morning, and has continued all week. Night crews are hand-sawing trees at 2am to 5am somewhere across Sheffield every morning. Crews have been disturbed by night patrols of campaigners, but it can be a bit hit and miss, so we need all eyes on our trees at all times of day and night. There were also some nasty incidents when the Arbs, who seem quite frustrated, did some very stupid things like using abusive language to protestors, including a woman on her own who was treated very aggressively, and making completely false accusations to the police about protestors’ behaviour (after the police were called out by protestors). Luckily there was good video evidence.
There have been some mass attacks. On Wednesday it was Meersbrook Park Road, where there was not a branch removed and a five hour stand-off that resulted in an arrest for blocking the highway. Thursday there was a huge attempt on the large Plane tree on Crescent Road. A few more branches were chopped, but not many, and another lengthy standoff. They used this standoff to try felling at St Ronans Road and Kenwood Road at exactly the same time. They had no success on St Ronans Road, although a campaigner was crushed against a wall by a felling crew member. But sadly they were able to reduce significantly to just a high stump a tree on Kenwood Road (one of the trees already brutalised by night time hand-sawing just before Christmas). This tree is still saveable with rectifying pruning. Later in the day there was a huge attack on a Lime tree on Chatsworth Road in Dore where an incredible 40 “yellow jackets” (felling crew, security guards, barrier crew and evidence gatherers) managed to get a few branches before they were stopped by a masked campaigner vaulting the barriers.
There have been many other attempts at felling trees across Sheffield. But again the dedication and bravery of so many people have prevented felling. Cars parked under threatened trees, night patrols, day patrols, keen eyed facebook reports of potential felling, geckos, bunnies, garden permissions, people videoing, bat boxes, and so much more. All are coming together to create an absolute nightmare for Amey and Sheffield Council.
Many/most of the parking restrictions have been extended again for yet another week, so we can expect the same tomorrow (Friday), next week, and even potentially at the weekends too. Don’t forget Amey are now being fined significantly monthly for their incomplete targets, so they are desperate and will resort to all sorts of tactics.
One event to notify you about is an event at the Banner Cross Pub on Monday 15th January from 8pm. Its not strictly tree related. It’s called “It’s Our City” and has been set up by a tree campaigner as the first meeting to tree to start a movement that begins to change the politics in Sheffield from a near one party political monopoly to something very different. It’s worked in Frome in Somerset, and in Herefordshire at a County level, look them up on Google. Perhaps it could happen in Sheffield too….
Welcome to Sheffield, where intruders come onto your property in the dead of night with handsaws, after you have expressly denied them permission to do so. And your council pays for it. This implausible nightmare vision is true. Let me explain.
Property rights in the UK are strong. If you don’t want someone on your property, then— barring certain emergencies, warrants, etc— it’s trespass for them to come onto your property and that’s against the law. Your property rights include the right to the airspace above your property (this is called ‘oversail’). This means that it would also be trespass for someone to send a remote control drone to hover outside your window. I’m sure we can all agree this is a good thing. Of course, these rights can be waived: just as you can invite someone in to your house, you can give them permission to oversail your property. But they are not allowed to oversail without your permission.
Sheffield, as more and more people know, is engaged in a long-running battle over its trees. Against nearly all expert opinion, Sheffield City Council and its contractors, Amey and Acorn are felling healthy mature trees all over the city rather than using standard engineering solutions that would readily allow the trees to be saved. (These solutionshave already been paid for in the contract with Amey, and in many cases have been recommended by SCC’s own Independent Tree Panel instead of felling. SCC have ignored the tree panel’s recommendations to save trees 87.3% of the time.) Many residents are appalled by what is happening to the trees on their own streets (as well as on others). On my own street, the council survey showed 100% of residents opposed to felling (and the Independent Tree Panel agreed, but has been ignored).
Many of the healthy trees to be felled have branches overhanging houses, and many of these houses are occupied by people who desperately want those trees to stay: in most cases the tree was a key factor in their choosing that house. These branches cannot be cut down without trespassing (via oversail) on the owners’ property. This means that, legally, the branches cannot be cut without the homeowner’s permission. This permission has never been requested. But for the avoidance of doubt many owners have sent letters to Amey denying permission to oversail their property, and many have put signs in their window denying permission. Amey and Acorn (Amey’s contractor) completely ignore this, trespassing on their property. During the day, however, owners (and tree protectors) often come and stand on their own property under the attempted felling, and are able to stop it.
And that is why Sheffield now features roving bands of workers with hand-saws, trespassing on people’s property in the dead of night to chop branches into the road. That is how unpopular this work is. Horrified residents awaken to the sound of sawing, or—even worse— to a pile of branches in the road. And to the knowledge that their right to deny access to their property is worth nothing at all in Sheffield.
[To learn more about the campaign to save Sheffield’s trees, go to the STAG Website.]
2017 saw the inner workings of a dysfunctional Labour run council exposed, linked to an unwillingness to come clean on their failings. And offering “fake news” about the Streets Ahead contract in response to tree campaigners.
Throughout the year Bryan Lodge trotted out the same discredited information. “Trees are only replaced as a last resort”, “the only trees being replaced are those causing real problems for people on our streets” and more.
Thousands have challenged these claims in letters to councillors and MP’s and their responses consistently lack the evidence to back them up.
In these circumstances people feel they have no choice but to engage in non-violent direct action to save trees where there is no credible evidence they are diseased, dangerous or dying.
Or that engineering solutions available within the contract cannot be used to cover damaging or discriminatory situations.
Sheffield is a city with a great tradition of peaceful protest. From suffragettes and the Kinder Trespasses through to Orgreave, poll tax, the Iraq war, tuition fees and austerity.
When police are used in dawn raids and anti-trade union legislation is used to arrest peaceful tree protesters you have to question what this council represents.
Labour took back power in 2011, have a big majority and will run Sheffield for the immediate future unless voters take action. On May 3rd residents can elect more opposition councillors to hold a dictatorial council to account.
Or more Labour councillors whose ability to act on your behalf will be restrained by their leader and Cabinet.
May I respond to Councillor Peter Price’s letter, (Your View, December 20), and challenge some of the claims he made regarding the tree issue and work on the Highways.
Unsurprisingly Councillor Price attempts to justify the disgraceful and totally unnecessary massacre of Sheffield’s street trees and congratulates Amey, Streets Ahead and Sheffield City Council for “the magnificent job they have done over the past five years in transforming the highways throughout our city”.
Well, roads in every neighbourhood have been detrimentally changed for ever with the loss of so many beautiful mature trees.
The claim that only dead, diseased, dying or dangerous trees have been removed (which the campaigners do not have a problem with) is false, as most of those felled were healthy specimens which could have been saved using the engineering solutions incorporated in the Amey contract to address any problems of damage to footpaths. However these methods were ignored.
As for some trees being “discriminatory” (creating difficulties for the elderly and disabled etc) well I haven’t noticed the same zealous action taken to remove cars that block access to pavements on every street in the city.
It is irrelevant how many new trees have been planted as they can never replace the mature ones with large canopy cover that we are losing and which are essential to counteract the dangerously high levels of pollution in Sheffield that is threatening people’s health and well-being.
I would very much like to know how, after neglecting tree maintenance for so many years, the council propose to find the money to look after all the new trees they are planting. Perhaps Councillor Price can tell me how long I will have to wait to see the ‘replacement’ trees grow to the same height as those including ‘Delilah’ which once proudly stood on Rustlings Road, or why trees like the Vernon Oak are threatened merely because a kerb stone is slightly out of alignment?
Maybe he can also tell me why perfectly healthy cherry trees on Abbeydale Park Rise that give such pleasure in spring with their blossom and enchant both children and adults with their fairy lights at Christmas are to be felled, or why memorial trees that were planted on Western Road to honour local soldiers killed in WWI are to be desecrated? (and no I don’t believe the wildly inflated figure that the council says it would cost to save them).
It would take too long to mention all the roads across the city that are losing their stately mature trees, but their loss can only be described as a despicable act of insanity by those who have no concept of the importance of what they are destroying.
Regarding the horrible new LED street lighting, I have heard motorists say they cast shadows in the wrong place and do not give as good light as the old ones. Many roads are already breaking up due and pavements are far more slippery and dangerous in icy weather than the original surfaces.
So all in all, Councillor Price, I have nothing whatsoever complimentary to say about the highways work as it has brought nothing but untold stress and anxiety to residents and certainly hasn’t improved my quality of life.
On the contrary I consider Amey, in conjunction with Sheffield City Council, have brought shame on our city with their environmental act of vandalism which has destroyed a precious part of our heritage and is one of the saddest episodes in our city’s history.
Parking restriction signs went up on many of the roads at risk of tree felling before Christmas, with the restrictions from the 8thJanuary onwards. In addition, there are very strong rumours from reliable sources that Amey have hired additional crews from across the UK for the whole of January to mount a felling blitz, similar to the one seen in May 2017. If true, and we have every reason to believe it is, then all of you reading this need to be on high alert.
Quite simply, the “core campaigners” who are out on the streets every day of every week will be stretched incredibly thin to the point of not being able to defend some trees.
So if we are going to be able to protect all the trees, you could choose to do all of the following things:
Patrol the streets overnight to prevent hand sawing of branches.
Park your cars under threatened trees. This is completely legal on roads without parking restrictions. And whilst not legal on roads with parking restrictions, so far, residents have been given warning requests to move their cars. So the process of moving cars away from a tree can buy time, allowing other campaigners to arrive.
Contact other neighbours on your street and organise rotas to stand watch on your own street. This has proved incredibly effective on roads which have already done this. By being there already, when the felling crews arrive, people can sound an instant alert and then put themselves in place to “gecko.” This is the completely legal action of standing with your back to a wall underneath a tree that is about to be attacked, before the barriers are erected.
Put up new (instructions here and here and utilise the existing bat boxes and other holes in trees. It is illegal to destroy a potential bat roost. Whilst felling crews may claim that the legally required endoscopic inspection by a bat expert has taken place, it often hasn’t. And the reality is that the inspection is supposed to happen in the minutes before felling, not days before. Amey are not telling the arborists on the road the truth. What you can do is challenge the arborists assertively about the fact they are about to break the law. This can be surprisingly effective as adding seeds of doubt into the arborists heads.
Block the completion of a fully connected barrier. Gaps in barriers mean the barrier zone isn’t complete, which mean the injunctions can’t be enforced. It’s amazing what can be done completely legally to prevent the barrier zone from being completed, or to delay it. This includes standing on the concrete blocks that the metal barriers are inserted into, or simply milling around and getting in the way of the barrier crews, preventing them from taking barriers off the lorry. Every delay counts.
Utilise the garden permissions (also know as oversail, trespassing legislation, see our campaign leaflets page). Most are still useful in terms of health and safety restrictions of felling overhead. But they are also vital in allowing “geckos” in and out, and fed with supplies.
Film and photograph everything. Film incomplete safety zones, unsafe practice such as felling overhead. Film assault against campaigners by felling crews and security staff. Film everything.
Challenge arborists and security staff about everything they do. Even if it’s just a 5% doubt, it’s a doubt. Which puts them under stress, and means they are more likely to make mistakes.
For the avoidance of doubt, we are not encouraging you to do any of the above, just pointing out some of the tactics previously used successfully to defend trees.
The most important thing from all the above is to not just assume that the “core supporters” will be around to defend “your” trees on “your road.” Stretched thin, it may be that even with alerts sent out, there may be nobody available to come to your street. If you want the guarantee of your trees being defended, it will require all of you reading this to step up and defend your own streets, as well as sending out alerts to anyone who may be available.
Innocent protest to save Sheffield’s healthy street trees turns into a nightmare, as a small group of brave suburbanites take on their Council, the police and a multinational corporation.
Crowdfunder: street trees legal fund
We are currently collecting to support the small number of campaigners who are facing court costs after cases brought by Sheffield City Council.
Heartwood TiCL trail
Walk the Heartwood Trail and find Robert Macfarlane’s beautiful charms against harm hung from some of Sheffield’s threatened Street Trees. Designed by Jackie Morris.
A Sheffield MP has called on council contractors to halt tree felling pending further investigation. 
Unlike an “Arb” today, I’m going to use my words…
Walk the 
STAG - Sheffield Tree Action Groups 