Council tree felling...

[Cyclone 10]

I'm just trying to clarify if they are defending the council.  They claim that they aren't whilst in the same breath saying that it isn't the councils fault...

I have no vendetta, I am calling out a 200 page long pattern of defending the council and Amey at every step though.

[lil-minx92 10]

"A Sheffield council spokesperson said: “We will undertake the agreed actions (to apologise for lying) within the timescales outlined in the ombudsman report and consider whether any lessons can be learnt as a result.”

 

Consider whether any lessons can be learnt!  Its fairly obvious that the lesson SCC need to learn is not to purposefully lie to the people of Sheffield! 😄

 

Somebody either made the decision to lie, gave the order to lie or sanctioned it. That person should be sacked for bringing the council into serious disrepute.

[Guest makapaka]

1 hour ago, Cyclone said:

So you ARE defending the council, despite claiming you weren't, and despite there now having admitted to misleading people.

 

And yes, the council specifically requested the presence of the police and asked them to make arrests under inappropriate legislation.  The police didn't dream that up on their own.

No I’m not.

 

Ill repeat it again - since the information came out on the wrongful arrests I haven’t commented about the councils actions - only that of the the police.

 

my only point was that I don’t believe the police made arrests on the councils instruction. to so so would mean the police force was under direction of the council.

 

now if you think a councillor told a police officer to arrest someone - and they did so without considering whether it was justified that is your opinion.

 

i would like to think a police officer wouldn’t do that.

 

thats not defending the council - it’s trusting the integrity of the police officers. 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2019 by makapaka

[lil-minx92 10]

11 minutes ago, makapaka said:

No I’m not.

 

Ill repeat it again - since the information came out on the wrongful arrests I haven’t commented about the councils actions - only that of the the police.

 

my only point was that I don’t believe the police made arrests on the councils instruction. to so so would mean the police force was under direction of the council.

 

now if you think a councillor told a police officer to arrest someone - and they did so without considering whether it was justified that is your opinion.

 

i would like to think a police officer wouldn’t do that.

 

thats not defending the council - it’s trusting the integrity of the police officers. 

 

 

Hmmmm . I blame Thatcher. She started all that!

[dave_the_m 61]

I should imagine that what actually happened just before the first wave of arrests was something along the lines of:

 

A senior SCC bod requests a meeting with a senior SYP bod to complain that protesters have been blocking felling and that the police, when called, aren't doing anything (because they can't think of any legal justification for an arrest). They agree that legal teams from SCC and SYP should get their heads together and find a suitable law. Someone manages to dig up a trade union law  about stopping someone from their lawful work by harassment etc.  At a further meeting between senior staff, it's agreed that this law will be used on any future protesters.  Amey workers and police constables are briefed about the new "rules of engagement". The next time the police are called, the protesters are arrested.

 

Then, the CPS reviews the cases, finds absolutely no evidence of harassment and intimidation, and drops all the cases.

 

After a while, the police stop arresting protesters because the CPS have shouted at them.

 

So SCC apply for an injunction instead.

 

Then protesters find ways round the wording of the injunction, so SCC and SYP get their heads together again, and this time their legal teams discover section 303 of the highways act - interfering with highway maintenance - which is a  level 1 offence (for comparison, littering in a public is a much more serious level 4 offence). Armed with this, the bouncers are instructed to use "reasonable force to prevent a crime", which as it turns out included punching and kicking ; all while the police looked on impassively.

 

Then Amey / security staff discovered that if they made any allegation against a protester, that protester would be immediately arrested, and likely given bail conditions not to go to any further protests. There was then a spate of ludicrous allegations ("he racially abused me", "he assaulted me", "I'm a witness to the assault and he tried to intimate me as a witness"). Every one of these cases was eventually dropped or lost at court. No Amey or security staff were ever arrested or prosecuted for any of their assaults or blatant lying to the police.

[WarPig 75]

At least with the Rustlings Rd trees now felled, residents could see todays fly by from their bedroom windows. Every cloud....

Edited February 22, 2019 by WarPig

[brogie bear 10]

Hi everyone!

Just found this if anyone fancies a listen :

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00066yq

 

Chestnuts on A roads, sycamores down alleys, rowans on roundabouts, and avenues of lime. Why do people care so much about urban trees? Perhaps they want to save the trees because the trees save them? 

 

Frances Byrnes' docu-drama, narrated by Robert Glenister, weaves the voices of Sheffield's tree campaigners into a dark contemporary fairytale. 

 

The poem Heartwood, a charm-against-harm, was written for Sheffield's trees by Robert MacFarlane. 

Cellist Tim Smedley played A Song For The Birds by Pablo Casals. The programme also features a recording of the same piece by Sheku Kanneh-Mason. 

 

Sound Design: David Thomas 

Director: Kate McAll 

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

[Staunton 18]

This is a fascinating listen – highly recommended. It features many Sheffield voices. The thing to bear in mind when listening is that the voices we hear are real. They are not the words of a novelist, not George Orwell or Franz Kafka, though listening to the points they make, you would be forgiven for believing so. They in fact relate the reality of life here in Sheffield, in the twenty-first century. Private contractors banging on your door in the early hours, the police changing the laws by the minute and then pursuing you as an offender. And all for the profit of a multinational tax abuser, Ferrovial (Amey).

 

Once upon a time, we could avoid the neoliberal agenda by refusing to shop in their stores or from their online platforms. Today, however, they come right to our door, destroy our home locality, shatter our peace in their cynical demand for profit. Trees are felled for the financial benefit of executives sitting in London and Spain – they don't care about us or the places we live. They just want money.

 

And who's money is it that they are grasping? Ours, our council tax has been handed over to this multinational. And who pays the South Yorkshire Police, who turn up in numbers to protect FerrovialAmey's revenue stream? We do, via our taxes. What a shocking reality – and all right here, on our streets.

 

Shame on Sheffield City Council for putting private profit before the citizens of Sheffield.

 

Shame on South Yorkshire Police for their political policing policy, facilitating this scandal and threatening quiet, law abiding residents with arrest and detention, even as we stand on our own doorsteps.

 

Meanwhile, FerrovialAmey shovel their seedy profits into their offshore account.

[Guest makapaka]

On ‎26‎.‎06‎.‎2019 at 15:51, Staunton said:

This is a fascinating listen – highly recommended. It features many Sheffield voices. The thing to bear in mind when listening is that the voices we hear are real. They are not the words of a novelist, not George Orwell or Franz Kafka, though listening to the points they make, you would be forgiven for believing so. They in fact relate the reality of life here in Sheffield, in the twenty-first century. Private contractors banging on your door in the early hours, the police changing the laws by the minute and then pursuing you as an offender. And all for the profit of a multinational tax abuser, Ferrovial (Amey).

 

Once upon a time, we could avoid the neoliberal agenda by refusing to shop in their stores or from their online platforms. Today, however, they come right to our door, destroy our home locality, shatter our peace in their cynical demand for profit. Trees are felled for the financial benefit of executives sitting in London and Spain – they don't care about us or the places we live. They just want money.

 

And who's money is it that they are grasping? Ours, our council tax has been handed over to this multinational. And who pays the South Yorkshire Police, who turn up in numbers to protect FerrovialAmey's revenue stream? We do, via our taxes. What a shocking reality – and all right here, on our streets.

 

Shame on Sheffield City Council for putting private profit before the citizens of Sheffield.

 

Shame on South Yorkshire Police for their political policing policy, facilitating this scandal and threatening quiet, law abiding residents with arrest and detention, even as we stand on our own doorsteps.

 

Meanwhile, FerrovialAmey shovel their seedy profits into their offshore account.

First world problems.....

[PeteM01 10]

Interesting that the University's contractors managed to remove 20-30 mature trees along Northumberland Road without a peep from anyone. I was surprised that they could do this when birds were likely to be nesting in them.

[Cyclone 10]

17 hours ago, PeteM01 said:

Interesting that the University's contractors managed to remove 20-30 mature trees along Northumberland Road without a peep from anyone. I was surprised that they could do this when birds were likely to be nesting in them.

Nesting season has finished hasn't it, possibly several months ago.

[nikki-red 307]

5 minutes ago, Cyclone said:

Nesting season has finished hasn't it, possibly several months ago.

 

Its February to August I believe.

Edited July 7, 2019 by nikki-red