Second round of mediation to be held in Sheffield trees dispute

A second round of mediation is to take place later this month in a bid to resolve a long-running dispute over Sheffield City Council’s programme of felling street trees.

The talks are being conducted by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, CEDR, and overseen by the Bishop of Sheffield, the Very Reverend Dr Pete Wilcox.

The council’s delegation includes elected members, council officers and representatives from its contractor Amey.

The delegation from STAG (Sheffield Tree Action Groups) will include members of the steering committee and a representative of Trees for Cities.

A joint statement from Sheffield cabinet member Lewis Dagnall, and Chris Rust and Paul Brooke, Co-Chairs of STAG, said: “Sheffield City Council, Amey and STAG have completed two days of constructive, mediated talks, chaired by the Bishop of Sheffield, the Very Reverend Dr Pete Wilcox, and have made substantive progress over that time.

“We have agreed to meet again in three weeks to continue our talks.”

It continued: “Both parties are hopeful that we will be able to make a full announcement at that point, covering a proposed approach to completing the remaining period of the Streets Ahead programme, alongside developing our street tree strategy for the future.

“In the meantime the current pause on tree replacement will continue.”

Last month it was revealed that the council has run up legal bills of more than £400,000 in defending a judicial review challenge and obtaining injunctions and committals against people trying to stop the programme.