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Sheffield's Street Tree Massacre
LunarSea
Posts: 1,923
I posted some of this as a comment in another thread but I think it's worthy of wider readership.
Between 2013 & 2022 over 7000 mature street trees were cut down by Amey plc under license from Sheffield City Council as part of their 'Streets Ahead' private finance initiative (PFI). There was significant opposition to this by many Sheffield residents who later organised themselves into very effective pressure groups, eventually amalgamating under the STAG umbrella (Sheffield Trees Action Groups). It attracted major media interest, especially when Jarvis Cocker spoke at one of the protests outside Sheffield City Hall. During one particularly contentious episode in autumn 2016, council contractors began work at 4.45am, dragging residents out of bed to move their cars before protesters arrived, scenes compared by Nick Clegg, the former Sheffield Hallam MP, to “something you’d expect to see in Putin’s Russia”.
This whole debacle culminated in the Sheffield Street Trees Inquiry chaired by Sir Mark Lowcock KCB and his final report has recently been published. Truly fascinating reading.
https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-03/sheffield_street_trees_inquiry_report.pdf
By and large the inquiry condemns the way Sheffield City Council handled the situation. These are a couple of quotes from his conclusions -
".... But the approach to street trees was flawed. The provision to remove and replace 17,500 trees, about half the total in the city, was misjudged. It largely ignored the value of street trees. It failed to anticipate the views of significant numbers of people across Sheffield ...."
".... Developing and then adopting a flawed plan was a failure of strategic leadership. Responsibility for that rests primarily with senior Council officers and senior politicians in the administrations of the governing groups between 2008 and 2012 ...."
Those 7000+ mature trees can never be replaced but local politicians certainly could.
Sheffield trees: Council leader to stay on despite damning report - BBC News
Between 2013 & 2022 over 7000 mature street trees were cut down by Amey plc under license from Sheffield City Council as part of their 'Streets Ahead' private finance initiative (PFI). There was significant opposition to this by many Sheffield residents who later organised themselves into very effective pressure groups, eventually amalgamating under the STAG umbrella (Sheffield Trees Action Groups). It attracted major media interest, especially when Jarvis Cocker spoke at one of the protests outside Sheffield City Hall. During one particularly contentious episode in autumn 2016, council contractors began work at 4.45am, dragging residents out of bed to move their cars before protesters arrived, scenes compared by Nick Clegg, the former Sheffield Hallam MP, to “something you’d expect to see in Putin’s Russia”.
This whole debacle culminated in the Sheffield Street Trees Inquiry chaired by Sir Mark Lowcock KCB and his final report has recently been published. Truly fascinating reading.
https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-03/sheffield_street_trees_inquiry_report.pdf
By and large the inquiry condemns the way Sheffield City Council handled the situation. These are a couple of quotes from his conclusions -
".... But the approach to street trees was flawed. The provision to remove and replace 17,500 trees, about half the total in the city, was misjudged. It largely ignored the value of street trees. It failed to anticipate the views of significant numbers of people across Sheffield ...."
".... Developing and then adopting a flawed plan was a failure of strategic leadership. Responsibility for that rests primarily with senior Council officers and senior politicians in the administrations of the governing groups between 2008 and 2012 ...."
Those 7000+ mature trees can never be replaced but local politicians certainly could.
Sheffield trees: Council leader to stay on despite damning report - BBC News
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
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When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
*Haven't seen that devastating impact in Wales, and can't speak for Scotland as I have been only once to Scotland.
I ♥ my garden.
It has also been totally ignored, that a significant number of the street trees removed, were diseased or damaged, beyond salvaging.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Amazingly, this one survived the cull, a winter of storms and the recent snowfall. And still the council won't bow to suggestions that it might be unsafe...
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Not ignored at all if you read the report (page 40).
In 2006 the Council sub-contracted Elliott Consultancy to complete a detailed stocktake of the highway trees in Sheffield. The study was completed and presented to the Council in 2007. Of the 35,057 street trees, about 3% were assessed as needing immediate felling (with the remainder requiring nothing more than maintenance work). So that's around 1,000 trees.
In 2012 the 'Streets Ahead' PFI begins with a remit to remove 17,500 mature trees, completely ignoring Elliot's results and recommendations.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful