Protest camp over Sheffield tree felling plan

Campaigners are protesting against the proposed felling of trees on Rustlings Road next to Endcliffe Park

Campaigners in Sheffield have set up a protest camp in a city park in row over plans to cut down trees.

Members of the Sheffield Tree Action Group (STAG) pitched their tents in Endcliffe Park on Rustlings Road to protect trees which are due to be felled as part of Sheffield City Council's £2bn road improvement scheme.

The five-year, Streets Ahead project is being carried out by contractor Amey.

The council said no date for felling had been set.

One of the protesters, Jenny Hockey, said she agreed that road improvements had to be done, but there "was no need to cut down these trees".

Last resort

"These trees have been neglected since the 1980s," she said.

"Sheffield council has now got £2.2bn to do the roads, the street lights, the pavements and to make everything smooth again.

"We need our large canopy that we only get from these mature trees and there are many other things they could do."

Protests have been held over the last few months in other parts of the city to try and prevent trees being felled.

In June, STAG gathered more that 4,000 signatures on a petition calling for the council to stall the plans until independent experts assessed the trees.

In a statement, Streets Ahead said that trees were only removed as a last resort.

"A part of the on-going Streets Ahead works across the city, all 30 trees on Rustlings Road have been assessed and we found that one is diseased and another 10 are damaging the pavement to such as extent that we cannot make reasonably practicable repairs," it said.

The statement added that more than 50,000 new trees had been planted across the city over the last year.