Tree scandal woes can be repaired

Sheffield Council got a huge amount wrong during the city's tree-felling scandal. Not least of this was the decision to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money pursuing protesters against their wrong-headed policy through the courts, rather than stopping to consider whether the campaigners had a point.

Following thepublication of Sir Mark Lowcock’s damning inquiry report which found the council had misled the courts and the public over the issue, the council has now repaid more than £30,000 in court costs to four campaigners it had successfully taken legal action against.

The figure is a relative drop in the ocean for a local authority the size of Sheffield’s but will mean a great deal to those who been repaid – not just in financial terms but also in underlining that they were very much on the right side of the argument during the very bitter dispute.

It is worth noting that the council went beyond Sir Mark’s recommendation to end all outstanding financial disputes in deciding to make the payments.

There is a long road back for the council in regaining public trust following the affair – not least because of the notable lack of resignations that have followed Sir Mark’s report.

But this move is an undoubted step in the right direction and an important acknowledgement that the council’s actions in the past were misguided in the extreme.

The failures of the past cannot be changed but repairing the ruptures they caused is a vital part of the city being able to move forward. This will hopefully be the start of that process.