c00kie

The consequence of this policy is that some areas of Sheffield have had significant reductions in the number of street trees. Firth Park ward, for instance, has had a net reduction of 160 trees; Burngreave ward 50 trees.

I make it that if the ward results are repeated next year Labour will lose 8 councillors, so they would be short of a majority. Postscript: though they would win one back in Stocksbridge, so would be only one seat short of a majority.

As the SCC site mentions, many of these diffusion tubes (which are principally monitoring NO2 levels rather than particulates) have themselves been installed by independent community groups. One issue with them is that they only provide long-term averages of the pollutant level, so they don't necessarily show the level to which e.g. kids walking to school are regularly exposed. (The particulate monitor map I linked to above is a real-time one). There is a project at the University of Sheffield (with which this particulate project is affiliated) to develop in a few months devices that monitor in real-time all the major pollutants (particulates, NO2, ozone...) . They're likely to cost about £100 as I understand it. There are people with far greater expertise than me on these matters on the facebook site I linked to above.

The Defra site linked to above gives a pollution forecast produced by the Met Office. The limited number of official pollution monitors in Sheffield is described here under "Measuring Pollution": https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/pollution-nuisance/air-quality.html

An independent network of particulate monitors is currently being assembled to cover Sheffield. You can look at real-time values for this here: http://deutschland.maps.luftdaten.info/#11/53.3916/-1.5132 The values yesterday were exceptionally high for the whole of the areas of Sheffield currently monitored. There is a Facebook group where these issues are discussed. If you're interested you could ask there to install your own monitor (cost about £30) . https://m.facebook.com/groups/1836920213190989

Another stage of the gradual unravelling of Sheffield City Council's web of deceit: https://tinyurl.com/yxazya9h

Plenty of people who don't live on Stannington Road understand how unsuitable the location is for a supermarket - as can be seen from the responses to the planning application: https://planningapps.sheffield.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=neighbourComments&keyVal=PC5T9LNYJ9900

For Sheldon Road 23 out of the 28 households who responded to the ITP objected to the trees being removed. So it would seem that your views do not reflect those of the people who live there https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/content/dam/sheffield/docs/roads-and-pavements/managingtrees/Sheldon%20Road.pdf

Yes I see that the police video of one of the multiple arrests in question has been posted on YouTube, and that confirms the point you've made that it was not a split second decision. The police should not be issuing false excuses like this.

Another fail for the council: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/may/30/channel-4-cities-national-hq-birmingham-manchester-glasgow-liverpool-leeds

https://www.facebook.com/groups/392913244219104/permalink/941334926043597/

http://www.thenorthernurbanist.co.uk/sheffield-councils-tree-felling-debacle-tells-us-problems-facing-local-government-uk/ Quite so. That's an article that addresses some of the issues facing a council that has signed a PFI deal without fully understanding the consequences of it. It doesn't address how a council that "clearly doesn’t have the money to pay for something [an expert-driven assessment of how urban trees should be managed] this involved and complex" can still have hundreds of thousands of pounds to fritter away on a useless PR exercise (the independent tree panel), and hundreds of thousands of pounds more for an attempt to jail one of its own councillors (and others) using a £15,000 a day QC. The arrogance and incompetence of this council is breathtaking and anyone voting Labour in the forthcoming elections is asking for more of the same. I say that as a lifetime left-winger.

And in case anyone is still disputing interest elsewhere in this affair, this video has now had 1 million viewings.

The work today apparently is a heavy pruning / pollarding, though whether the trees are still condemned in the planned upgrade work for Fitzalan Square is unknown. Many people - including "tree huggers" - have campaigned vigorously to save these particular trees, and signed the petition below. Have you done either of these? https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-fitzalan-square-plane-trees

Meanwhile you can take a positive step by signing a hugely popular petition to unhitch Sheffield from the disastrous contract with Amey: https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-rescind-the-streets-ahead-pfi-contract-with-amey-hallam-highways-ltd