Has Sheffield Council really learnt lessons from the tree felling scandal? - Yorkshire Post Letters

The other week I had tea with Sheffield’s Lord Mayor, as she considered calls for an Extraordinary Council Meeting. No meeting was scheduled to thank Sir Mark Lowcock, to receive his report, and note the recommendations.

Why did we have to fight, once more, to make this happen?

Even now, people inside and outside the Council are unaware of the events during the felling dispute and the damage done. There was a vigorous, relentless stream of propaganda to justify the felling, blaming protestors for taking money from other priorities and placing information, now proven to be wrong or misleading, into the public domain.

Sheffielders were lied to and encouraged to think of us as middle class, uncaring, ill-informed NIMBYs when we were ordinary residents pushed to extraordinary limits by a ruthless and dishonest Council and Council machine.

I still meet people who believed what they were told. They have incorrect and unjust opinions of protestors. Addressing and changing these impressions is a major task. I’m not sure how it can be achieved but a few media messages from the Council will not do.

My experiences raise concerns about who controls the communications sent out by our Council. Who authorises them and how could they have been so wrong? What checks and balances ensure that this machine is not hi-jacked for party political propaganda?

We hoped Sir Mark Lowcock’s report would bring closure and repair damage. It brought truth but insufficient action. Campaigners feel they are back in that hard, dark place. We still walk in our local areas recalling every felling, every conflict, every emotion in the years-long struggle.

I expected resignations, but they have not come. People identified in the Report are still in key roles. Council officers and Councillors left with impunity to comfortable pensions and new jobs with no attempt to take responsibility for the destruction, conflict, breakdown in community cohesion and distress caused. How can we have confidence in local government?

I struggle to see how we move to reconciliation in these circumstances and apologies ring very hollow. Lord David Blunkett’s article accusing us of wanting revenge has just added to the damage.

To try to begin to address this I went to the South East Local Area Committee meeting.

I arrived a little late and did not give written notice of my wish to speak. I spoke briefly about the Lowcock report and the false impressions encouraged during the dispute. The Labour Councillor chairing closed down any discussion and a local resident who had read the Report and submitted a question was told it would not be taken at the meeting.

We are told the culture has changed but things are just the same. A community meeting chaired by a Labour politician who doesn't want the issue to be discussed.

A full Council meeting will receive the report on May 10, after local elections. It’s hard to dispel the concern that some Councillors would prefer it if the Report gathered dust on a shelf and that everyone would just forget it.

There have been too many last chances to get this right. Sheffield deserves better.