Tree campaigners were out on the streets again today despite a Sheffield Council threat of injunctions to curb the protests. Azz Mohammed reports for Sheffield Live!
Tree campaigners were out on the streets again today despite a Sheffield Council threat of injunctions to curb the protests. Azz Mohammed reports for Sheffield Live!
Tree planting charity, Trees for Cities, has said it is suspending all funding, support, and activity in Sheffield due to concerns with the council’s tree felling programme. The UK charity works internationally to promote greener cities and has planted more than 25,000 trees in Sheffield over the last ten years. Baillor Jalloh reports for Sheffield Live!
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Calvin Payne, one of two protestors arrested in November for trying to prevent the felling of a 100-year-old tree, has spoken out after the Crown Prosecution Service decision to drop all charges. Simon Crump, a lecturer at Huddersfield University, and Calvin Payne, a local campaigner, were detained under trade union laws on suspicion of preventing tree surgeons from carrying out their work. The pair were due to face trial on 9 March, 2017, but were told on Friday that charges had been dropped “on the basis that it is not in the public’s interest to prosecute”. Sheffield Live! reporter Baillor Jalloh spoke to Calvin Payne.
Campaigners to save Sheffield trees circled the Town Hall to form a human ribbon as part of the latest rally against the Council’s tree felling programme. Hundreds of people turned out in support of Sheffield Tree Action Group, many wearing yellow clothes to symbolise the yellow ribbons that are wrapped around the 20,000 trees scheduled to be removed by City Council contractor, Amey. Sham Powell reports for Sheffield Live!
Two hundred people gathered outside Sheffield Town Hall to protest against the Council’s tree felling programme before a Council debate on the issue. Members of Sheffield Tree Action Group and Save Our Roadside Trees addressed protesters ahead of the full council meeting which debated a Green Party tabled motion of ‘no confidence’. Sheffield Live! reporter Sham Powell spoke with former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.
Hundreds of people gathered on Rustlings Road on Saturday for a rally to protest against felling of trees lining Sheffield streets. The event follows the removal of eight trees on Rustlings Road in the early hours of 17 November, where three people were arrested. The council say the trees are damaging pavements which would cost £50,000 to repair, but an independent report found no “arboricultural reason” to remove all but one of the eight trees. The event was organised by the Sheffield Tree Action Group. A council spokesperson said “”We would like to offer an apology to the people of Sheffield who were affected by the way in which we took the trees down on Thursday of last week. We are sorry for the disruption and distress caused by the work starting at 5am”. Shamaan Freeman-Powell reports for Sheffield Live!