Appointing Jayne Dunn as Mayor of Sheffield would undermine council’s reconciliation attempts with tree campaigners - Yorkshire Post Letters

Much has been made of Sheffield City Council’s attempts at reconciliation with members of the Sheffield Tree Campaign. These gestures followed the very critical independent Lowcock Report’s findings on how poorly the issue was handled by the then Labour leader Julie Dore and her cabinet.

The council leader, Tom Hunt, has offered apologies, both publicly in the media and privately to individuals, about the draconian attempts to threaten, fine and imprison decent citizens – who were standing up to defend the green heritage of which Sheffield has always been very proud.

Therefore I find it astonishing that they are unveiling none other than Jayne Dunn as the new mayor. She is the last remaining member of the cabinet which oversaw the shambolic handling of the affair, and for this reason, in my view, she should never have been accorded the privilege of representing the city.

It makes me wonder how sincere Tom Hunt and the Sheffield Labour Party are about us all trying to move on from the tree debacle.

Appointing Jayne Dunn as mayor is not the way to go about it; conversely, it will insult and anger many who feel that no member of the complicit cabinet of the time should be allowed to hold public office.