Suspended sentences for tree protesters
Sheffield Council has won a critical legal battle against anti-tree felling protesters – but the political stakes in the saga have been raised once again. Chris Burn reports.
THREE CAMPAIGNERS convicted of breaching an injunction banning ‘direct-action’ protests against controversial tree-felling work in Sheffield face paying thousands in legal costs after they were spared jail.
Following a three-day hearing at the High Court in Sheffield, Mr Justice Males ruled cases against university lecturer Simon Crump, retired schoolteacher Fran Grace and French songwriting magician Benoit Compin had been proved.
The injunction, which the council won last summer in the wake of growing protests against the removal of thousands of street trees in the city and their replacement with saplings, prevents protesters entering safety zones set up around trees being felled and also forbids people encouraging or facilitating anyone else to break the injunction, including through social media.
Crump and Compin were found to have breached the injunction on two occasions and Grace once. Crump and Compin were both handed sentences of two months in prison, suspended for 12 months. The judge ruled no further action needed to be taken against Grace due to her involvement relating to an ‘isolated incident’. The judge said he would be reserving judgement in relation to the case against a fourth campaigner, Paul Brooke. After that case has concluded, the costs the campaigner are liable for – expected to run into thousands of pounds – will be decided.
Sheffield Council welcomed the verdicts last night.
PROTESTS AGAINST tree-felling in Sheffield will continue despite a judge convicting three demonstrators of breaching an injunction – leaving them facing the prospect of paying tens of thousands in legal fees, campaigners have vowed.
A decision on the costs that will be owed by Simon Crump, Benoit Compin and Fran Grace will only be made once judge Justice Males makes a judgement in the case against a fourth protester, Paul Brooke.
The judge, who granted the council the civil injunctions last year preventing protests inside ‘safety zones’ around trees due for felling, said he needed further time to consider his verdict in Mr Brooke’s case.
Speaking outside court following the conviction of his three fellow campaigners fighting against the removal of healthy street trees in Sheffield and their replacement with saplings as part of a council highways maintenance contract with private firm Amey, Mr Brooke, inset, said while protesters will abide by the terms of the injunction in future, demonstrations will not stop.
Work to fell thousands of trees in the city has been on hold for more than two months following a national outcry against the policy after dozens of police officers and private security guards were sent out to support operations earlier this year. Mr Brooke said: “Bringing this case today didn’t serve the people of Sheffield. Bringing this case today won’t make it easier for Amey to come back and carry on felling trees if that’s what they choose to do. There will be a greater number of people seeking to legally protest if they return to felling. I hold very little hope that this council has learned anything from this process.”
In his ruling, Justice Males said he expressed no view about the merits of the tree-felling programme but added it was “critical to the rule of law that the orders of the court should be complied with”.
He said: “If we were to reach a position where orders made by the court could be ignored with impunity by those who disagree with them, we would have lost something very precious.” The judge also rejected an accusation made during the trial that Sheffield Council officer Paul Billington had given ‘misleading evidence’ that led to injunction being granted in relation to the number of trees due to be felled under the contract.
He said: “I found him to be an honest and reliable witness, a conscientious and fair-minded council officer doing a challenging job.”
The first incident the judge ruled on occurred on December 18, 2017 and involved Simon Crump and Fran Grace. The court was shown videos of Crump and Grace being asked several times to leave a “safety zone” around a tree made up of metal fencing by workers. The second incident on January 10 this year involved Benoit Compin and saw him reciting a poem while standing inside a safety zone.
The third incident involved Crump holding on to park railing close to a threatened tree in an attempt to prevent a safety zone being completed by the final barriers being joined together.
The final incident again involved Benoit Compin and happened on March 5 in Abbeydale Park Rise, when he said ‘I’m going to break the injunction again’ and climbed on to a threatened tree.
The incident yet to be decided upon involving Brooke happened on January 22.
There will be a more people seeking to legally protest. Paul Brooke, Sheffield tree campaigner.
AS MR Justice Males convicted a retired primary school teacher, a university lecturer and a French magician for breaching a court-ordered injunction banning ‘direct action’ protests against the controversial felling of thousands of street trees in Sheffield, his decision appeared to vindicate the city council’s decision to bring legal action against the campaigners. But the jury remains out on what the verdict will be in the court of public opinion.
While large parts of the three-day hearing at the High Court in Sheffield that finished yesterday afternoon were taken up with technical discussions of legal precedents and what precisely constitutes a ‘safety zone’ – the area around a tree due to be felled that protesters are barred by the terms of the injunction from entering – a greater political drama was unfolding at the same time outside the courtroom.
Just a week before the case, Councillor Lewis Dagnall, the new man in charge of overseeing the council’s tree-felling strategy, who had arrived in post in May with a promise of ‘compromise’ with campaigners following bruising local election results for Labour in areas of the city most affected by the policy, told BBC Radio Sheffield there was nothing he could do to stop the proceedings progressing as he was “insulated from the legal process” and had not been involved in a decision made by council officers.
But on the hearing’s first day on Tuesday, the judge insisted on knowing if the legal action was being supported by the council’s Labour leader, Julie Dore, as he wanted reassurance “this application is brought on the instructions of democratically-elected councillors”.
In contrast to Coun Dagnall’s remarks, Yaaser Vanderman, the barrister representing the council, said while the ultimate decision rested with the council’s legal director, “there will have been input from the relevant council members, including the leader”. He then clarified that Coun Dore had “positively agreed” that the proceedings be brought and was “happy” with them taking place.
In the following days, Coun Dore has faced mounting political condemnation for her involvement in the decision, most notably by members of her own local party.
On Tuesday night, the city’s Crookes and Crosspool Labour party branch passed a motion that noted “with dismay” her involvement with the decision and called for legal action to be halted. Yesterday morning, Lee Rock, part of the branch’s executive, addressed tree campaigners outside court to reiterate the condemnation. He said: “The final straw for us was this week when the judge asked if the Labour council are supporting these injunctions and the potential imprisonment of citizens of Sheffield. We don’t accept, as socialists in the Labour party, a Labour council that seeks the imprisonment of protesters.”
The Sheffield Not-For-Profit branch of the Unite union also condemned the move, saying “no senior Labour Party figure should ever endorse the imprisonment of protesters fighting for justice”. On social media, several local Labour party members shared resignation letters they had sent the party over the issue.
Coun Dore also came in for fierce criticism from opposition councillors during a stormy council meeting on Wednesday, as she reiterated her support for the legal action while insisting the decision had been made independently of her.
Following the verdicts last night, Shaffaq Mohammed, leader of the Liberal Democrat group in Sheffield, said the decision to pursue the prosecutions showed it was “business as usual at the council” despite the recent promises of compromise and a change in direction.
“What we thought was an olive branch turned out to be a prickly stem,” he said. “We’ve seen a council determined to punish people who don’t agree with them.”
The issue of tree-felling in the city has been a thorn in the side of the council’s Labour administration following years of growing protest, with thousands of people now members of what is known as the Sheffield Tree Action Groups. Campaigners believe healthy trees are being unnecessarily felled for contractual reasons.
Last summer, Sheffield Council, which has insisted trees are only removed as a ‘last resort’, decided to pursue civil injunctions to prevent protesters standing directly under trees due to be felled as campaigners used the tactic successfully. In June 2017 alone, 329 of 427 attempted treefelling operations had to be abandoned.
But the imposition of the injunctions in August last year was not the success the council hoped for as protests continued. Private security guards hired by Amey were brought in to enforce the order and, following heated clashes in January, felling was temporarily halted. It started again in February, with a greatly increased police presence seeing dozens of police officers sent out each day alongside the security team to oversee operations.
Growing protests followed, along with multiple arrests – most notoriously including a woman who had been blowing a toy trumpet at a demonstration.
At the same time, new revelations about the contract, including the existence of a previously-unknown target to replace 17,500 of the city’s 36,000 street trees, came to light. The council say the figure merely represents a form of insurance to provide ‘financial cover’ should that many trees need to be removed in the event of an outbreak of disease and the true number is more likely to be about 10,000. But it is unable to explain how a ‘financial adjustment’ that it says will take place at the end of the contract if fewer than 17,500 trees are felled would work in practice and whether it or Amey would benefit.
The situation brought national condemnation from figures as diverse as Environment Secretary Michael Gove and former Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker and in March, work was put on hold once again to allow a review of how work is carried out to take place.
As Justice Males ruled that three campaigners – ex-teacher Fran Grace, lecturer Dr Simon Crump and street artist Benoit Compin – had broken the terms of the injunction, he said that while he expressed no view on the merits of the tree-felling programme, the rule of law must be upheld. The judge added he “would have been uneasy if an application was being made on behalf of the council to commit citizens of Sheffield to prison without the support of democratically elected councillors”.
But he also noted that while the situation has “excited some very strong emotions”, two council elections since 2016 have returned a majority of councillors who support the work and that the authority’s leadership – and their controversial treefelling programme – are ultimately “accountable to the people of Sheffield through the ballot box”.
The final straw for us was this week. We don’t accept, as socialists in the Labour party, a Labour council that seeks the imprisonment of protesters. Lee Rock, Crookes and Crosspool Labour branch executive member in Sheffield