Sheffield Council leader defends decision to publish apology letter over the street tree scandal into the archives

At today’s (February 21) Strategy and Resources Policy Committee meeting, Cllr Tom Hunt was challenged over how the apology letter was published in the public domain.

The letter was initially sent to the court after misleading it over the street tree felling saga and then shared publicly.

At one point during the meeting, a member of the public asked Cllr Hunt: “Given Sir Mark Lowcock’s recommendation number 11 that the council should consider improvements to its information management, both in record keeping and in communication with the public, can the leader (Cllr Tom Hunt) provide specific examples of improvement?

“I ask this question in the light of my knowledge of specific examples of recent poor information management.

“These include late or no responses to FOI (Freedom of Information) requests, lack of retention of files that were sent to the Lowcock Inquiry, lack of responses to direct emails to officers and bizarrely, the apology to the courts being published not in Sheff News but placed directly in the archive.”

Cllr Hunt said the street tree archive was a “publicly accessible resource”.

However, he added, he was aware of concerns about its “usability”.

He said: “It is a publicly accessible resource and it was set up to ensure all of the information produced by the council remains publicly available and in one place.”

Cllr Hunt said the decision to publish the letter in the archive was communicated “directly with key stakeholders and interested people”.

When it comes to FOIs and complaints, he said the council was moving towards a new performance management framework.

“We know, we can do better”, he added.

Last year, Sir Mark Lowcock’s report said the council was slow to grasp the reputational damage of the debacle which had become a defining fact about the city, years later.

His 100,000-word report detailed the failings of the Streets Ahead programme that aimed to fell 17,500 street trees as part of the £2.2billion contract between the council and Amey.

Sir Mark found that the council overstretched its authority in taking drastic action against campaigners, had serious and sustained failures in leadership and misled the public, courts and an independent panel it set up to deal with the dispute.

One of Sir Mark’s recommendations was that the council apologises to the court – the council did so in December 2023 with the letter published at the end of January in 2024.

In June, the council issued an apology to all residents of Sheffield for Sheffield City Council’s actions during the street trees dispute.