Sheffield street tree scandal complaint about protesters pressured over legal action

Russell Johnson asked a series of questions from the public gallery at a meeting of Sheffield City Council (March 6). He pointed out that it is a year on from the Lowcock Report into the street tree scandal, which heavily criticised the council’s conduct against protesters trying to stop thousands of street trees being felled.

He described the council’s handling of complaints as a “long-running sore people will appreciate”. The council has repeatedly apologised for its handling of the scandal following Sir Mark Lowcock’s report, which found it had misled the public and the courts.

Mr Johnson asked council leader Tom Hunt: “Why has a formal complaint from those illegitimately pressured to sign a draconian undertaking so far taken three years to process and it’s not expected to be concluded for several more months?”

He also referred to a “straightforward” complaint from a member of the public about alleged breaches of the council code of conduct, which has so far taken 11 months.

Mr Johnson asked if Coun Hunt understood that this has led people to be cynical about the sincerity of the council’s apology following the publication of the Lowcock Report.

Debacle

He added: “It seems to some observers to be another case of ‘sorry not sorry’ – something this council is becoming particularly accomplished at – particularly in the apparent absence of accountability around the street tree debacle and the more recent Containergate, Plaquegate, Banner Cross street design blunder and Market Tavern debacle.”

He also asked when the council will adopt a new complaints handling code recently published by the local government ombudsman.

Coun Hunt responded: “The complaint submitted in 2021 was not progressed at that time. This is because the independent street tree inquiry was announced at that time and it was felt that the inquiry was a better way of resolving the issues that were raised.”

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He said that, as part of the apology process which followed the report, the council had further discussions with those involved and the work on it is ongoing. He said he understood that it looks like slow progress.

Coun Hunt said that, whereas more time could always be taken to understand what went wrong, the council has “fully and unambiguously” adopted all the recommendations of the Lowcock Report.

He added: “We collectively place our energies into moving forward as a city to be the best council that we can. The council plan and budget we are putting forward today are evidence that that work is ongoing.”

Secrecy

All code of conduct complaints are investigated thoroughly and appropriately by officers and the process is confidential, said Coun Hunt. The complainant is kept updated about progress and can take further steps if they feel the need to.

He said that the council’s strategy and resources committee is considering the new complaint handling code at its meeting on April 20.

Mr Johnson also read out questions on behalf of Justin Buxton, who wanted to know if there had been any secrecy around the design of the plaque that the council has agreed to put on the town hall to mark the street tree scandal.

Coun Hunt replied that stakeholders did not like the initial design shared with them, so a different approach is now being taken. As a result, councillors were asked not to share the scrapped design.