Sheffield tree saga: Council confirms apology sent to courts to be published ‘as soon as possible’

At a Strategy and Resource Policy committee meeting last December at Sheffield Town Hall, Cllr Tom Hunt, the leader of the council, revealed that they would formally apologise to the courts over the street tree saga.

This came after campaigner Paul Brooke said he submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request on September 27 to confirm whether an apology to the courts had been made by the council over the scandal.

He did not get an answer before the deadline, members of the committee were told.

At the meeting, Cllr Hunt said the council would send a letter “by the end of the year” and it would be made public.

A week later, at an extraordinary S&R meeting on December 21, members heard that the apology was in draft and would be sent the next day (December 22).

Now, a council’s spokesperson has confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the apology had been sent to the Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk.

When asked if there was a timeline for the publication of it, we were told that after the Lord Chancellor had considered it, the council would publish the apology “as soon as possible”.

A report made by Sir Mark Lowcock described the scandal as a “dark episode in Sheffield”.

He 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.