Charges dropped against pensioners in Sheffield tree protest

Retired sociology professor Jenny Hockey, 70, and her friend, retired teacher Freda Brayshaw, 71, were arrested on Rustlings Road, Sheffield.

Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg described the operation as being more like a well-planned anti-terror raid than a morning of tree maintenance.

Mrs Hockey and Mrs Brayshaw said they arrived at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on Thursday morning to answer public order charges but were told, as they prepared for the case, that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had decided not to proceed.

Speaking outside, Mrs Brayshaw said: “We’re obviously very relieved that the case hasn’t been taken forward.

“It’s been a whole chain of surprises. We couldn’t make head or tail of it and we were prepared for anything this morning.”

She added: “But it won’t bring back the trees. As the months have gone by, living without the tree that was outside my house, it almost gets worse.

“More and more I think about what they’ve done and that they’ve got away with it.”

Protesters likened the early morning operation on Rustlings Road to a dawn raid as police accompanied tree surgeons and banged on doors warning residents to move cars.

Sheffield City Council later apologised for its tactics and vowed not to repeat them.

The move was part of a long-running and controversial plan by Sheffield City Council, through a long-term PFI agreement with contractors Amey, to remove hundreds of street trees they deem to be dangerous.

Mrs Hockey vowed to continue protesting against tree-felling across the city.

“We can’t take our foot off the gas,” she said.

She said she was originally arrested under trade union legislation but was eventually charged with a public order offence.

Angry Rustlings Road residents said they were woken at about 5am on November 17 last year by workers from Amey, who were accompanied by a large number of police officers.

Mrs Hockey said at the time: “There were two police officers on the doorstep so I instantly thought something terrible had happened to my kids.

“Then I thought somebody had nicked the car. I didn’t realise they were about to, as it were, take the car.”

Mrs Hockey said: “The street was seething with people - lights, noise, chainsaws. The whole thing was just horrific.”

She said she was arrested outside her home when she refused to leave the base of the tree.

“What can you do in that situation except exercise your right to peaceful protest and that’s what we chose to do,” she said.

“They warned us they’d arrest us if we didn’t move, which is what they did.”

The teams of tree surgeons aimed to cut down eight trees - mostly limes - and managed to fell seven.

Mr Clegg, who is the local Liberal Democrat MP, told residents at the scene in Rustlings Road: “Do you seriously plan a dawn raid for trees? It’s treating residents like an anti-terrorist operation.

“I don’t know what planet these people are on.”

A week later, Bryan Lodge, cabinet member for environment at Sheffield City Council, apologised for the disruption and distress caused, admitting that the council had “got it wrong”.

The Sheffield trees dispute has its roots in the massive 25-year-long PFI agreement that Sheffield City Council signed with Amey in 2009 and is reported to be worth £2 billion.

The contract includes a huge ongoing programme to resurface thousands of miles of Sheffield’s pothole-ridden road system.

Amey is tasked with maintaining the city’s 36,000 roadside trees as part of the agreement.

The contractor and council say the trees being removed are diseased or dangerous but protesters say many of them simply do not fit in with Amey’s resurfacing methods.

The latest focus of the long-running dispute is the threat to 23 trees in Western Road in the Crookes area of Sheffield planted by school pupils in 1919 to honour First World War heroes.

Last week, Mr Lodge vowed to work better with affected communities across the city and announced a cross-party working group to look at the Western Road First World War Memorial.