Sheffield Council to install plaque for tree campaigners as part of apology

The council published a five-page apology following the publication of damning findings from Sir Mark Lowcock’s street tree inquiry.

In a report on plans to apologise, approved by the strategy and resources committee this week, officers said the plaque will be unveiled in the entrance to the Town Hall in March next year.

This event will coincide with six years since the last on-street protests and a year since the publication of the inquiry findings, officers said.

They said: “[It is] in recognition of those who fought for our environmental heritage and were vindicated, and to serve as a reminder to all elected members that this failure of leadership will never happen again.”

“This plaque should be equal in size, prominence and detail to the Kinder Trespass plaque at the entrance to the Town Hall and made of good quality material,” officers added. “The design process should include asking the public for their views on potential designs.”

It is estimated to cost up to £10,000.

Sheffield Council’s apology

Sir Mark’s long-awaited inquiry – commissioned by the council as part of a power sharing deal between Labour and the Green Party – sought “truth and reconciliation” following the infamous Streets Ahead programme that aimed to fell 17,500 street trees as part of a £2.2 billion contract between the council and Amey. It found the programme was flawed from the start and a target to fell thousands of street trees was made after misinterpreting data.

The report showed 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.

In the apology – which the council admitted was a long time coming – the authority admitted it lied to the public, caused harm, destroyed public trust, withheld information for too long and misled the courts, among other wrongdoings.

It also set out 36 actions in total which include writing personal apologies to street tree campaigners.

In the open apology, Kate Josephs, chief executive of the council, and council leader Tom Hunt said: “We understand that apologies without actions are meaningless.

“We have set-out actions in a formal report to strategy and resources committee which will address all the inquiry’s recommendations.

“While we know the decisions Sheffield Council takes will continue to require challenging trade-offs, this [plan] should ensure lessons are learnt and a dispute of this magnitude with our residents can never happen again.

“We look forward to working with the residents of Sheffield going forward 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.”