Council that sparked fury after felling 1000’s of timber compelled to apologise

Sheffield City Council has reportedly issued a four-page apology to residents after an inquiry found it had behaved dishonestly throughout a dispute over the felling of wholesome timber within the metropolis in a £2.2billion road enchancment undertaking. The council issued an open apology to residents, notably to those that campaigned towards the pointless felling, for its “actions during the street trees dispute”.

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The council wrote: “The mistakes the Council made were set out very clearly by Sir Mark Lowcock, they should not have happened, and we apologise for them unreservedly.”

‌In the apology, the council wrote: “An open apology to all residents of Sheffield, and beyond, for Sheffield City Council’s actions during the street trees dispute We are sorry for the actions that we took during the street trees dispute.

‌“We recognise that this full apology, for some, is a long time coming, and we understand that due to the Council’s behaviour, some people will never forgive Sheffield City Council and have lost trust and faith in us.

‌“We hope that this apology will begin the process of restoring trust and faith.

“We would like to specifically apologise to campaigners. We are sorry that they were misrepresented as unrepresentative and primarily concerned with their own streets.

‌“This inaccurate characterisation sowed discord within communities. A lot of people care about our street trees and gave their time and energy to try to protect them for the benefit of the whole city.”

‌The council went on to say that given March’s inquiry, it has mirrored on its behaviour.

‌It wrote: “We have committed to taking the action needed to ensure we learn from the past and never repeat those same mistakes again.

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“The Inquiry found serious errors of strategic leadership and wisdom of decision-making during the dispute.

‌“The errors made were enabled by an unsympathetic culture and problems with the quality of advice, capability, systems and resourcing which were not addressed when they should have been.”

‌The dispute was raised in 2012 when the council signed a 25-year take care of the agency Amey which included the elimination and substitute of 17,500 road timber.

‌However, the deal was opposed by the neighborhood and by 2015, an “independent tree panel” was arrange.

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However, the inquiry discovered the council misled the panel, the general public and the courts over what might be achieved with the cash offered by Amey.

‌Sir Mark Lowcock wrote: “From 2016, the council rejected many of the recommendations the ITP made in good faith to save trees.

‌“Setting up an independent panel, misleading it and then ignoring substantial numbers of its recommendations was destructive of public trust and confidence.”

‌He concluded: “The dispute did significant harm. Thousands of healthy and loved trees were lost. Many more could have been.

“Sheffield’s reputation was damaged. Public trust and confidence in the council was undermined. It has not been fully rebuilt.”

‌The apology from Sheffield City Council addresses missed alternatives and insufficient threat evaluation, sustained failure of strategic management, a tradition that was unreceptive to exterior views and discouraging of inner dissent and a scarcity of transparency, openness and honesty.

‌At the top of the apology, the council mentioned the way it plans to maneuver forwards, including that 5 years on it’s a very totally different place. It has set out which actions it’s going to put in place to rebuild public belief in a report.

‌Lastly, it stated: “We understand that apologies without actions are meaningless.

“We look forward to working with the residents of Sheffield going forwards, so we can continue our work to be the best we can be. We will listen and learn, we will try and maybe we will fail sometimes.

“Failing and making mistakes is a part of life, but refusing to listen and learn is a mistake we can never repeat.”

On March 6, the Sheffield Street Trees Inquiry Report by Sir Mark Lowcock discovered the council additionally misled the excessive court docket twice through the row – throughout which aged residents have been arrested and held for eight hours for attempting to guard the timber.

In autumn 2016, council contractors dragged residents off the bed to maneuver their vehicles at 4.45am to start chopping down timber, earlier than protesters arrived.

Former Sheffield Hallam MP Nick Clegg in contrast the scenes to “something you’d expect to see in Putin’s Russia.”