YP Letters: Council's failings over Sheffield tree affair are clear to see

YOU have received many letters highlighting that parts of Sheffield City Council’s PFI Streets Ahead contract are redacted and unavailable for the public and experts to see.

You have also received a number of letters commenting on the laws surrounding the arguable trespass of tree campaigners which is currently under review at High Court.

However, to an extent, these matters are red herrings. The parts of the contract that can be reviewed – by anyone – clearly show that SCC has a responsibility to deliver sustainable management of our street trees and to deliver standard good practice. It is this that they are clearly failing in – with lots of evidence already gathered by the public.

We don’t need to see yet more of the contract to realise this, prove it and evoke change.

We still don’t have a Tree and Woodlands Strategy promised two years ago. We still aren’t seeing evidence that SCC and their contractor Amey are applying any alternatives to felling. Chasing up redacted parts of the PFI contracts is vital and principled, as is challenging any Council’s draconian application of trespass laws under the guise of altruism. However, we need to keep our eye on the ball.

From: Harry Moore, Leeds Road, Ilkley.

HOW can the Labour council in Sheffield, on the one hand, fell oxygen-producing trees in the city by the thousand and on the other preside over one of the worst cities for air pollution?