Sheffield tree felling: long-awaited archive starts appearing online with no announcement – this is why

The authority committed to creating a Street Tree Archive in October 2020 so those interested could view documents, files and all related content between 2013 and 2018 concerning the felling of thousands of street trees under the £2.2 billion Amey contract.

Materials for this had recently started appearing online but there was no announcement from the council.

When asked for an update on the progress of the archive and why this had happened, councillor Julie Grocutt, deputy leader, said: “The archives team are continuing to acquire material for the Street Tree Archive and they are working to prepare it ready for public disclosure.

“Part of this work involves some test catalogues. These test records comprise material already in the public domain and previously published by the council and its partners. Testing is undertaken to ensure the final catalogue is fully functional and easy to navigate. Currently, no new material has been published by the archives team.”

It said it would provide monthly updates on the progress of the archive but the latest report covered November to December last year.

In that, the council said around 3,695 documents had been transferred for archiving and all documents already in the public domain were ready for publication.

It was in the process of recruiting a temporary additional archivist and work, such as redacting sensitive personal data in more than 800 Freedom of Information requests and customer complaint files continued.

The council did not provide an estimate for when the full archive will be published.