Sheffield tree inquiry: Chair of damning inquiry to speak at council meeting to discuss findings

Sir Mark Lowcock will make a presentation about his Sheffield Street Trees Inquiry Report to the extraordinary meeting of Sheffield City Council taking place tomorrow (Wednesday, May 10) at 2pm.

His report concluded that the council misled the public and the courts over its ill-fated £2 billion highways programme contract with Amey that included a decision to fell 17,500 street trees.

That led to dozens of public protests and the arrests of some of the people taking direct action to try to stop street trees being felled.

Sir Mark said in his report that the highways contract was “flawed” from the moment it was signed and called the issue a “dark episode” for the city. He said the council’s actions were “economical with the truth, misleading and in some cases were ultimately exposed as dishonest”.

That led to anxiety, stress and injuries to many people who opposed the controversial policy, said Sir Mark. It also badly undermined public trust in the council.

His inquiry, which had the aims of truth and reconciliation, involved more than 32 hours of public hearings involving featuring 185 witnesses plus written evidence from 90 participants.

Coun Bryan Lodge, who led on the street tree policy for much of the time it was in force, and council leader Coun Terry Fox both faced repeated calls to resign following the report’s publication.

Coun Lodge resigned at the end of March, although his parting statement did not mention the issue, pointing instead to a difficult budget-setting process in his role as co-chair of the finance sub-committee.

Coun Fox said he was going to stay on to lead the process of implementing the report’s recommendations but was finally forced to resign as council leader by the party’s national leadership on Friday.

Sheffield Labour has been placed into special measures by the party and a campaign improvement board was put in place by Labour during the council election campaign.

Tomorrow’s meeting will hear statements from Lord Mayor Coun Sioned-Mair Richards and council chief executive Kate Josephs. Councillors, plus members of the public who have registered in advance to speak, will also be able to ask questions and make comments and statements.

A motion before the council will recommend accepting all the conclusions and recommendations of the inquiry and reflecting upon “the broaderimplications for new ways of working across the council”.

It includes a requirement that “committee chairs abide by the rules and spirit of new open, transparent and democratic ways of working and accepts thedecision of the people of Sheffield expressed through the governancereferendum”. The referendum ended the council’s cabinet system and introduced a more inclusive way of taking decisions through committees.

The motion also calls for better accountability for actions of councillors,officers and other stakeholders. Actions to implement all the report’s recommendations would be driven through key council committees “in an open and transparent way”.

To see the meeting agenda and watch the meeting online, go to the Sheffield City Council website.