Council offers apology to more tree campaigners

Councillors have been advised to accept the latest report's findings in full

Sheffield City Council has accepted an independent review's recommendation for a full apology for its "heavy-handed" legal threats against four tree campaigners.

In 2017, several protestors were threatened with injunctions which would have stopped them from disrupting the council's controversial tree-felling programme, or encouraging others to do so.

The council issued a full apology for its failings over the scandal after an independent review in 2023, but the complaints of the four campaigners were not considered in that report.

It said it accepted the recommendations of the latest investigation "in full" and had issued apologies.

The review said the council issued legal letters to some Sheffield residents setting out their intention to obtain injunctions preventing them from continuing to protest against its £2.2bn street improvement project.

Those who received the letters were given the opportunity to agree to stop campaigning in terms set out by the authority as an alternative to not proceeding to court.

"In broad terms, it meant the complainants would not have to risk the granting of an injunction and the costs consequences for them personally of proceeding to a contested hearing in the High Court," the report added.

After new information about the scandal came to light in 2020 and 2021, the individuals made several complaints about the council's "intimidating" legal threats, which they said went "further than was reasonably necessary".

'Bunker mentality'

Several complaints were upheld following the independent investigation by legal firm VWV that concluded in February, with its findings published ahead of a meeting on Monday.

The report described the legal basis against the complainants as "sound", but concluded the authority's action "was a result of the bunker mentality at the council at the time and the desire to 'get the job done'."

It also labelled the authority's approach as "heavy-handed".

It said the impact on the complainants "cannot be underestimated" and criticised the delay.

"The handling of the complaints means there are four residents who have been let down," the report added.

"It will not be enough to simply apologise again."

The council admitted the process had "taken longer than necessary, and an external investigator should have been commissioned earlier".

As well as calling for "full and complete apologies", the report's other recommendations related to governance, how the council's legal team works, and the authority's culture.

Officers have advised councillors to accept its findings in full and endorse an action plan when they meet on Monday.

A previous independent review of the council's behaviour during dispute, known as the the Lowcock Inquiry, said there had been a "failure of strategic leadership".

In response, the authority acknowledged its "poor" behaviour towards campaigners and residents and issued personal apologies to some individuals.

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