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Tree-hugging protesters take back control in Sheffield
https://www.ft.com/content/c5270924-326f-11e8-b5bf-23cb17fd1498Trees breathe life into our urban landscapes, a reminder of the natural world amid the city smog. Even the most mild-mannered, stoical Brits can be radicalised to defend their place in our leafy streets.
In the northern city of Sheffield a dispute over mass tree felling has inflamed bourgeois passions and awakened unprecedented levels of civic activism. The local authority has sanctioned chopping down thousands of oaks, purportedly to address the city’s potholes and buckling pavements: 17,500 trees — half of the city’s population — face the axe as part of the 25-year “tree management strategy”.
The torrid scenes include retirees out on early-morning patrols to spot the high-vis vests of Amey’s felling teams. The axemen are then blocked by tree-huggers, until police and private security teams undertake their forcible removal. The resulting injunctions and arrests have caused outrage, but there is a community carnival aspect to the resistance too. Local hero Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of the band Pulp (who once sang “those useless trees produce the air that I am breathing”) helped give musical voice to a fundraising concert.
Felling has been temporarily halted in the wake of a BBC film that focused on heavy-handed policing and showed Sheffield City Council’s Labour leader refusing to answer questions. Chopping, however, has been paused before; the battle is far from won. Amey was licensed as part of a £2.2bn deal struck, as with most public service contracts, with a view to minimising the costs. Sheffield Council claimed there was no numerical target for removing trees, but a freedom of information request revealed otherwise. If fewer than the target number of trees go, the Sheffield taxpayer will be on the line — officials call it “a financial adjustment”. The current council leadership resolutely defends the strategy, aware of the huge costs if they U-turn.
In the northern city of Sheffield a dispute over mass tree felling has inflamed bourgeois passions and awakened unprecedented levels of civic activism. The local authority has sanctioned chopping down thousands of oaks, purportedly to address the city’s potholes and buckling pavements: 17,500 trees — half of the city’s population — face the axe as part of the 25-year “tree management strategy”.
The torrid scenes include retirees out on early-morning patrols to spot the high-vis vests of Amey’s felling teams. The axemen are then blocked by tree-huggers, until police and private security teams undertake their forcible removal. The resulting injunctions and arrests have caused outrage, but there is a community carnival aspect to the resistance too. Local hero Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of the band Pulp (who once sang “those useless trees produce the air that I am breathing”) helped give musical voice to a fundraising concert.
Felling has been temporarily halted in the wake of a BBC film that focused on heavy-handed policing and showed Sheffield City Council’s Labour leader refusing to answer questions. Chopping, however, has been paused before; the battle is far from won. Amey was licensed as part of a £2.2bn deal struck, as with most public service contracts, with a view to minimising the costs. Sheffield Council claimed there was no numerical target for removing trees, but a freedom of information request revealed otherwise. If fewer than the target number of trees go, the Sheffield taxpayer will be on the line — officials call it “a financial adjustment”. The current council leadership resolutely defends the strategy, aware of the huge costs if they U-turn.
