A letter to the Sheffield Star
I was horrified to see the letter from Cllr Peter Price (Sheffield Star 10/04/23 not yet online) which confirmed that the Sheffield Labour Party have learnt absolutely nothing from the Lowcock Report.
He continues to blame trees for damaging the pavements when it has been shown that in the majority of cases, the terrible state of the pavement was not caused by the trees but by many layers of tarmac. When this excess tarmac was removed in the vast majority of cases it was then possible to resurface or modify the pavement without chopping the tree down. Other trees were targeted because they had slightly moved the kerb.
Where trees were found to be damaging or discriminatory (making life difficult for wheelchair users/parents with pushchairs/mobility scooters etc) the issues should have been addressed using one of the recommended 14 Engineering and Tree-Based Solutions. These practical alternatives to tree removal are used as standard by Local Authorities in the UK and had already been paid for under the terms of the PFI contract. In Sheffield they were ignored whilst Sheffield Labour Councillors routinely lied about them and healthy trees were needlessly destroyed.
Many of the beautiful healthy street trees throughout the city were chopped down because they were wrongly accused of being damaging or discriminatory by the Council. In Shiregreen this happened before the campaigners became aware of it. Peter Price remains completely unapologetic.
He praises Cllrs Fox and Lodge, continuing to ignore the ecocide they presided over and the £400,000 of Council Tax payer’s money wasted on legal proceedings against tree campaigners who have now been completely vindicated. Councillors Price, Fox and Lodge should resign their posts on the Council now.
Graham Wroe
Manor Castle Green Party
The original letter from Cllr Price
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