Chopping down trees is wrecking our children’s inheritance says Gove
MICHAEL Gove has attacked a city’s plan to fell thousands of trees saying it will damage ‘our children’s rightful inheritance’.
The Environment Secretary called on officials to ‘listen to the people’ and stop axing trees in Sheffield, which campaigners say are being needlessly destroyed.
But the local authority claims they are diseased or dangerous.
The row has seen two pensioners arrested in a stand-off with police, while the council has sought injunctions against protesters who tried to stop machinery.
Now Mr Gove has intervened after the issue was raised with him during a trip to Yorkshire. In a letter to the Labour-run council’s leader Julie Dore, he said: ‘It is clear that many of Sheffield’s residents are deeply frustrated and angry at the decision to remove a large numbers of trees from local streets.
‘Understandably, local people place a significant value on their green spaces and their local environment, and these trees are a really important part of that.
‘We know trees and leafy streets make places healthier, cleaner and more desirable places to live.
‘So you can understand why this issue has caused me such grave concern. The destruction of thousands of mature trees from the Steel City will surely damage our children’s rightful inheritance.
‘To that end, I would call on the council to listen to the people of Sheffield and end the tree-felling and replacement programme.’
But the council hit back, declaring Mr Gove’s assessment inaccurate and dismissing his intervention as the ‘ill-informed whims of a Conservative minister’. Some 6,000 of the 36,000 trees on Sheffield’s streets are due to have been replaced by the end of the year, with 600 to be planted, according to the council.
They include an elm on the city’s Chelsea Road that came second in the Woodland Trust’s contest to find Britain’s favourite tree.
Protesters say many of the trees are being felled simply because they are getting in the way of resurfacing being carried out under a 25-year, £2billion deal with contractor Amey.
Rebecca Hammond, from Sheffield Tree Action Groups, welcomed Mr Gove’s intervention, adding: ‘It’s not too late to put things right.’
But Bryan Lodge, the local councillor responsible for environment, told Mr Gove: ‘It is surprising that you would not seek a full under- standing of an issue before announcing a position.
‘I know that you have publicly stated that you believe “the country has had enough of experts” but our council believes they still have a role to play.’
He said the council would rather follow recommendations of expert groups than ‘follow the ill-informed whims of a Conservative minister’.
CHAINSAW MASSACRE From the Mail, July 8