Sheffield Council to publish apology sent to courts over the tree scandal

At a Strategy and Policy Resources Committee meeting earlier this week, Councillor Tom Hunt was asked about why it took "so long" to send the apology for "misleading the courts during the 'dark period' of the street tree scandal" since Sir Mark Lowcock published his report on the matter in March 2023.

Coun Hunt said the report needed to be "fully considered" and to do so it required "the consideration of the legal points" raised in the report.

He said: "As that inquiry was independent, we haven’t seen the details about that advice so we needed our own consideration.

"The general counsel wanted to read all of the judgements in all of the cases taken by the council to be sure the council agreed with the inquiry’s view that the misleading document had no impact on the outcome of those cases."

Coun Hunt added the council intended to share the apology publicly on January 31.

He said: "The apology does cover both the judicial review and the injunction proceedings taken by the council.

"It is important to state that the inquiry found no evidence that the council’s lawyers or other individual officers misled the courts."

He said the council was apologising for a misleading document produced by them.

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.