Thousands of Sheffield’s trees have been felled as part of a controversial £2billion resurfacing plan, leading to clashes with protesters.
Now it has emerged Sheffield Council planned to chop down nearly half of the 36,000 trees along the city’s streets – despite previously insisting it did not have a target.
The revelation is the latest development in a six-year battle that has seen the council pitted against campaigners who are seeking to save the city’s trees from the chop.
It has emerged Sheffield Council planned to chop down nearly half of the 36,000 trees along the city’s streets – despite previously insisting it did not have a target. Pictured: Tree protesters and police clash on Abbeydale Park Rise in Sheffield on March 5
While officials say they have removed only dangerous, diseased, or dead trees, campaigners say the felling has been only to make resurfacing easier.
The council, which is working with contractor Amey to cut down the trees, has previously insisted that it did not have a specific target for tree removal and refused to disclose how many of the city’s 36,000 ‘highway trees’ were under threat.
However newly-published information, revealing 17,500 trees are at risk, came to light after the Information Commissioner ordered the council to make its documents public.
One passage of the document, requested by campaigners under the Freedom of Information Act, states: ‘The service provider [Amey] shall replace highway trees in accordance with the annual tree management program at a rate of not less than 200 per year so that 17,500 highway trees are replaced by the end of the term.’
The revelation is the latest development in a six-year battle that has seen the council pitted against campaigners who are seeking to save the city’s trees from the chop
Sheffield Council’s cabinet member for environment Bryan Lodge said it ‘remains difficult’ to estimate how many trees will be felled over the lifetime of the contract.
He added: ‘Any suggestion that 17,500 trees are a target or a requirement is an incorrect interpretation of the contract.’
However, Sheffield Tree Action Group campaigner Paul Selby called the document a ‘smoking gun’, claiming it proved the council intended to meet removal targets.
The row in Sheffield led to an intervention by Michael Gove when he visited the city last August.
The Environment Secretary called on officials to ‘listen to the people’ and stop axing trees.