Anger at Government plans to return Sheffield Council to 'strong leader' model after tree-felling scandal

The council, which was led by Labour’s Julie Dore during the dispute under a ‘strong leader’ and cabinet system model, repeatedly claimed that felling was only conducted a “last resort”. But a subsequent public inquiry found the council had misled the public, press and courts over its strategy and had a secret contractual target to remove 17,500 trees – around half the street trees in the city.

The public outcry about the policy led to felling being stopped in March 2018 at a point when around 6,000 trees had been felled and replaced with saplings.

The situation led to the formation of the ‘It’s Our City’ campaign which successfully gathered more than 20,000 signatures to trigger a referendum on how the city council was run. In May 2021, 65 per cent of local voters backed a change to a committee system of governance to share out decision-making responsibilities among a wider group of councillors, with the changes coming into force from 2022.

But last week, Local Government Minister Jim McMahon announced the Government intends to legislate the scrap the committee system and require councils operating the model to return to the leader and cabinet model.

Mr McMahon claimed the change “will simplify the governance system and ensure all councils operate an executive form of governance, providing clarity on responsibility and accountability, and improving efficiency in decision making”.

He added: “This change will provide clearer, more easily understood structures at a local level, improving efficiency and preventing authorities from wasting taxpayer funds on needless changes to systems of governance.

"The law already allows for and requires overview and scrutiny arrangements to be in place.”

Sheffield City Council’s Labour leader Tom Hunt said the announcement was a “surprise” and the council had not been consulted about the plan.

Coun Hunt said that since the change in governance arrangements and the subsequent publication of the public inquiry into the council’s conduct during the tree-felling scandal, “we have been on an improvement journey to listen, change and rebuild trust with the city, a journey which was recognised in our recent nomination for Most Improved Council at the LGC Awards”.

He added: “We have worked hard to ensure decision making that reflects the needs of the people of Sheffield, to listen to our residents, and we have embedded the principles of openness, honesty and accountability at the heart of our system of governance.

"The culture in Sheffield City Council has been transformed over the last few years, and we are determined to continue on that journey. We are committed to continuing this collaborative and inclusive approach, ensuring that all voices are heard.

"This news comes as a surprise and we were not consulted. We are seeking an urgent conversation with Government on the detail and timescales of the proposed changes, to ensure the experience and perspectives of Sheffield are given due consideration.”

The It’s Our City campaign said the strong leader model had been “resoundingly rejected” by Sheffield’s voters and any return to it should only happen after a new referendum.

Its statement said: “The strong leader system led to the disastrous decisions made by Sheffield City Council to cut down healthy street trees and attempt to put citizens in prison for protesting.

"The government’s announcement rides roughshod over the settled will of Sheffielders, and our democratic right to decide the way our council works.

"Despite Sheffield’s resounding vote for change, the government arrogantly tells us what is best for us, what they will allow us, and how we and our city are to be ‘managed’.

"Sheffield’s position is unique. There is no other council or city where local citizens themselves took collective action, won the right for all the people of Sheffield to decide the way our council works via a city-wide referendum, and fought for local governance change to the committee system. Our collective and community action in Sheffield was, and remains, the largest ever citizen-led mobilisation in the country demanding local governance change to a committee system.

"We call on government to recognise the unique position of Sheffield, respect our city’s democratic decision, and to rethink its intended re-imposition of a governance system that failed us in Sheffield.”

The Sheffield Trees Action Groups which campaigned against the felling said they were “dismayed” by the plans.

"It was the people of Sheffield who acted to oppose and play such a major role in halting the felling of healthy street trees and the abuse of power by Sheffield City Council's 'strong leaders'.

"One of the positive legacies of the campaign was that Sheffield residents also subsequently acted collectively and determinedly to force a local referendum that removed destructive 'strong leader' governance from our city.

“Any forced reversal of Sheffield's democratic decision would be a serious error and especially in light of the damage wrought by our council through the street tree dispute. STAG urges Sheffield City Council to make the strongest representation possible to government about the need to maintain Sheffield's committee governance, and for government to rethink."

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was contacted for comment.