Sheffield Council deny Amey will receive ‘whopping’ £15m penalty for not felling half of city’s street trees

Fresh questions for council over Sheffield tree saga after 'whopping deduction' email emerges: The Yorkshire Post says

Amey is delivering a £2bn, 25-year highways improvement contract in Sheffield known as Streets Ahead which began in 2012 but became mired in controversy due to the tree replacement element of the programme, involving the removal of thousands of street trees and their replacement with saplings.

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Environmental campaigners argued that many healthy trees were being cut down unnecessarily for contractual reasons, prompting increasing protests which culminated in early 2018 with dozens of police officers and private security guards being sent out to support felling work in what was called Operation Quito.

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It began in late February 2018 but was halted after little more than a month following widespread national political condemnation of the tactics after multiple campaigners, including a vicar and a retired firefighter, were arrested.

Newly-published documents relating to the operation have just been released under Freedom of Information Laws including an email from March 2, 2018 from David Wain, an environmental technical officer at the council, discussing the forthcoming publication of a previously-confidential part of the Streets Ahead contract which was to reveal it stated 17,500 street trees - almost half the 36,000 in the city - were to be replaced by the end of the contract at a rate of not less than 200 per year.

Mr Wain sent an email to the council’s director of council and environment Paul Billington, senior procurement manager Liz Buck and head of highway maintenance Philip Beecroft which read: “It came to me as a thought - obviously the service points will be redacted in the published schedule, but this PR will still say that there is a deduction (unknown amount) for Amey for every tree under 17,500 that they don't replace - which is protestor gold - they'll say Amey are indiscriminately felling to avoid a whopping great deduction in year 25 - so they may not be getting paid per tree, but they are reducing their deduction per tree, so it is in their financial interest.”

Mr Wain added that by his calculation, if Amey removed 10,000 trees rather than 17,500, the deduction would be £15m, which he then described as “a whopper of a potential adjustment in year 25”.

His email then said: “I think we need to say something positive to offset this - like we are happy for Amey to plant additional new trees up to the final 17,500 number in order to fulfil this element if the contract as that will give us future longevity on the tree stock as the decline in tree health continues after hand back as we can't guarantee funding for replacements once back in house.”

Liz Buck subsequently replied to Mr Wain and Mr Billington: “Hiya David I disagree with your analogy below but I will phone you if you are free as I am not a fan of email for obvious reasons.”

When the contract details were released on March 9, an accompanying press release described the 17,500 figure as “insurance cover” and said it would be an “incorrect interpretation of the contract” to describe it as a target or a requirement. It said the council believed around 10,000 would be replaced over the course of the contract.

Sheffield Council told The Yorkshire Post later that month that a “financial adjustment” would be made at the end of the contract in 2037 if fewer than 17,500 trees were replaced but it could not say how that would work as Amey was not paid to replace individual trees.

The council subsequently said in August 2018 that the replacement of 17,500 trees was “already paid for in the contract” and any potential change to the amount Amey is paid would be subject to negotiation.

When asked by The Yorkshire Post about the contents of Mr Wain’s emails, a council spokeswoman said today that the authority’s position is unchanged from what it said in August 2018.

She added: “I can confirm that Amey will not be financially penalised by the council for retaining street trees.”

New street tree strategy to be announced soon

A new street tree strategy for Sheffield will be published in draft form in the next few weeks, the council has said.

Reinspections of previously-threatened trees began earlier this year following talks between the council and campaigners in 2018, with new engineering solutions made available to reduce the numbers being axed.

Discussions have also been taking place about a longer-term strategy. A council spokeswoman said: “The first draft of a new Street Tree Strategy for the city will be available before the end of the year and will determine a joint and considered approach to managing the city’s street trees for years to come.”