‘Sorry’ seems to be the easiest word. But is it enough?

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing.

A week has now passed since the independent report into the Sheffield street tree dispute was published. However, any thoughts that the saga might by now be fading into our collective memory have been utterly dispelled. Since Sir Mark Lowcock’s report was published last Monday, more damaging revelations have come to light about just how bitter the row got — and calls for the resignations of council leader Terry Fox and another senior Labour councillor have intensified. Today we look at where blame truly lies.

As well as that we have a beautiful photo of Redmires reservoir in the snow, a £75,000 doer-upper in Broomhall, and the return of a jazz legend to Sheffield.

Catch up and coming up

Thanks to everyone who read, liked and shared our weekend read about how (and why) the biggest illegal rave to take place in Sheffield for years was organised. You can read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two great newsletters to our 1,242 paying members. The first included a piece about a visit I made to the Harland Works repair cafe to fix my coat stand! And the second included a brilliant story by Lucy Brownson about the history of women’s involvement in the trade union movement in Sheffield. An extract from that second piece is below.

Women provided mutual aid for striking miners and their families, including hot meals, community creches and toy libraries — without which many would’ve been starved back to work. They also adopted some of the more radical methods seen in feminist and anti-nuclear campaigns, like building international solidarity and holding sit-ins inside the mine shafts. “I’d rather face a hundred striking miners than half a dozen of those bloody women,” one senior police officer famously quipped.

Next week we’ll send out two more including a piece by me about the lesser-known but no less impressive examples of modernist architecture in Sheffield (featuring a triangular pub in Wincobank and a Sir Basil Spence designed church in Richmond). To help fund a new way of doing journalism in Sheffield based on subscriptions rather than clicks, please consider subscribing using the button below. It costs £1.34 a week if you pay for 12 months up front.

Editor’s note: We’re now coming up to the second anniversary of the very first newsletter we ever sent out. In those two years, we’ve gone from nothing to become a major part of the media landscape in Sheffield. Where will we be in another two years? Well, that’s largely up to you. The more members we get, the better The Tribune will be. Please join us today.

The big picture: Winter wonderland ❄️

There were so many great pictures of the snow in Sheffield that it was difficult to know which one to pick! But I thought one of the best was this one of Redmires reservoir taken late last week. Thanks to Karl Hallam from independent John Street opticians EYEYE for letting us use it.

This week’s weather 🥶

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say we’ll have a topsy-turvy week with low pressure mixing with both cold and mild air masses to provide unsettled conditions throughout. 

Monday 🌦️💨  A very windy day with showers or longer spells of rain dominating with only a few fleeting breaks in between. Milder by day with highs of 12°C.

Tuesday 🌦️❄️ With colder air returning, we begin with sleet and hill snow clearing east followed by sunshine and wintry showers. Breezy with highs of 6°C.

Wednesday ☔❄️ Another cold day with cloud thickening as rain, preceded by sleet and hill snow, moves in from the west by late afternoon. Highs of 6°C.

Thursday 🌦️ Much milder with low pressure beginning to fill to the west of the UK. As such, it remains mixed with sunshine and showers. Highs of 13°C.

Friday 🌦️ Staying changeable with little change in the pattern. Still some pleasant brighter spells, but a continuing risk of showers with highs again a mild 13°C.

Outlook: The low to the west moves over the UK, but continues to fill. Temperatures close to average with generally unsettled and showery conditions favoured.

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

The big story: ‘Sorry’ seems to be the easiest word. But is it enough?

Top line: A week after the independent report into the Sheffield tree dispute was published, the row shows no sign of abating. Does someone need to take responsibility and resign?

Sorry not sorry? One of the key recommendations in Sir Mark Lowcock’s report was for the council to issue a “comprehensive and fulsome apology” for the things it got wrong in the course of the dispute, “especially between mid-2016 and early 2018”. The day after the report was published, Sheffield City Council leader Councillor Terry Fox apologised for the authority’s handling of the dispute, as did current chief executive Kate Josephs.

• However, in a series of media interviews last Tuesday morning, Fox rejected calls for his resignation, and revealed he had also rejected an offer from finance committee co-chair Councillor Bryan Lodge to do the same. He also said no officers would be sacked as a result of the report.
• Since the report was published, Lib Dem leader Shaffaq Mohammed and Green leader Douglas Johnson have both called for Fox and Lodge to resign. Many former tree protesters got creative in the snow over the weekend to add their voices to the calls for the two councillors to go.

Another apology: While the report represented something approaching complete vindication for the protesters, the inquiry did find examples of “unacceptable behaviour” including harassment and abuse of public officials and their families by a number of people supportive of or involved with the campaign. It said an acknowledgement of that would be “appropriate and would also support reconciliation”. A statement sent to The Tribune by the STAG committee said they “agree completely” with Sir Mark’s recommendation. They added:

We are very sorry for any distress or harm arising from the behaviour of anyone involved in our campaign. Perhaps it is inevitable that some people in a campaign like ours will become angry and say or do things that go beyond the principles of peaceful protest, which we emphasised throughout the campaign, but it is never acceptable. In particular we wish to express our sympathy for all workers who became involved in the dispute, through no choice of their own, and any local residents who suffered distress when the dispute affected them in their homes and neighbourhood.

Further revelations: One thing that may be weighing on senior councillors’ minds is the fear that there is more to come out. Two stories from the Yorkshire Post’s Chris Burn in the last week illustrate just how bitter the row got. In one, it was revealed that Paul Billington, the council’s then director of culture and environment, suggested deliberately killing hundreds of healthy trees by “ring barking” them to make it impossible for the protesters to argue they were defending healthy trees. In another, according to a Freedom of Information request released last week, the council pressured South Yorkshire Police into arresting more protesters. A statement from the council accepted that they had been wrong to do so.

Who was to blame? Some of the politicians most closely associated with the tree dispute, including former council leader Julie Dore, have now left the scene. However, Terry Fox and Bryan Lodge do still serve in senior roles at the authority, as council leader and finance committee co-chair respectively.

• Terry Fox held the cabinet responsibility for the PFI contract between 2015-16. Sir Mark Lowcock’s report says the Independent Tree Panel he set up did represent a chance for the council to take stock. Crucially, however, he says that many council officers were not “bought in” to this new approach.
• Bryan Lodge held the cabinet responsibility for the Streets Ahead contract between 2016-18. The report says this was a period marked by a “hardening of the council’s approach”. It was also when some of the main flash points took place, such as the dawn raid on Rustlings Road and the first arrests.

Where are they now? As with some of the politicians, many of the senior council officers who were around at the time have also left their jobs, some of them moving on to other well-paid public sector roles. Two of the most high profile are former director of legal and governance Gillian Duckworth, who is now solicitor and head of scrutiny at Greater Manchester Combined Authority, on a salary of £130,000, and former head of highways Steve Robinson, who is now director of highways at Manchester City Council, where he is paid between £105,000 and £109,000. As yet there has been no word from them about their part in the dispute.

Bottom line: The number of people who had a hand in the mess that became the Sheffield tree saga probably runs into the hundreds. However, as Sir Mark Lowcock’s report makes clear, the period between mid-2016 and 2018 was clearly the most damaging. Tree protesters were assaulted, arrested, taken to court and pressured into signing legal undertakings based on what we now know was false information. Whether resignations would satisfy those who were wronged is unclear, but it’s certainly understandable that such calls are being made.

Home of the week 🏡

This Broomhall three-bedroom end terrace is definitely a doer-upper. It’s in need of complete restoration throughout and also comes with terrifying graffiti. It is on the market for £75,000.

Tribune Tips: If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please email editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity. Get in touch.

Our media picks 🎧

WANdisco kicks London when it’s down 💾 A piece in the FT looks at what’s going on at one of Sheffield’s most successful companies. Last month we reported on WANdisco becoming a $1bn company, but it now looks like that was mere fantasy. The firm says it has discovered “significant, sophisticated and potentially fraudulent irregularities” with one staffer’s orders. The FT says it could be the latest example of Silicon Valley’s “fake it til you make it” culture.

Pictures show devastation of Great Sheffield Flood 🌊 An excellent photo piece in The Star features nine amazing pictures which show the devastation of the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864. Last Friday, 11 March was the 159th anniversary of the flood, which claimed 240 lives after a torrent of water swept down the Loxley Valley from the newly-built Dale Dyke dam towards Sheffield. The tragedy is marked annually with a remembrance service at Millsands.

Sir Pat Duffy interview 📺 A fascinating interview on the BBC’s Politics North programme with former Sheffield MP Sir Pat Duffy, who is now 102. Born in 1920, Duffy remembers the General Strike of 1926 and fought in the Second World War. After the war he entered politics, serving as MP for Attercliffe from 1970 until 1992. He was also appointed president of the NATO Assembly in the 1980s. Fast forward to 20 minutes for Lucy Ashton’s piece.

Things to do 📆

Tour 🖼️ Find out about one of Sheffield’s most celebrated artists in this free guided tour of the George Fullard exhibition at the Graves Gallery. Living in a Sculpture looks at both the Darnall-born sculptor’s early life and later career. Join Elizabeth Lindley, assistant curator of visual art, on a tour of some of the key works in the exhibition including drawings, maquettes and sculptures. The tour takes place at the Graves on Tuesday, 14 March from 2pm-2.30pm. 

Talk 🗣️ At Portland Works on Wednesday, 15 March, well-known local historian Peter Machan will host an illustrated talk about his recent book Loxley: Wanderings in a Curious Valley. The talk will explain many aspects of Loxley Valley’s varied and fascinating history, from its history of agriculture and industry to its mysterious castle, the lords of the hunt and the most disastrous flood of Victorian England. The talk costs £5 and will run from 7pm-9pm.

Music 🎷 In the 1980s, Courtney Pine was one of the first black British jazz artists to make a serious mark on the jazz scene. Over 30 years on, he continues to break new ground with a string of highly acclaimed recordings and prestigious music industry awards. On Thursday, 16 March, Pine plays at Firth Court with pianist Zoe Rahman, with whom he collaborated on his latest Song (The Ballad Book) project. Doors open at 7.30pm and tickets are £8.50-£16.