sheffield trees

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

35 minutes ago, Gary Prentice said:

To be fair, the thread is about early starts and anonymity of the staff. 

 

The rights and wrongs of SCC and Ameys day to day decisions are an entirely different subject. 

Inextricably linked though Gary?

 

The scandal rightly sits at the upper echelons of SCC decision making and it's the 'little people' (on both sides of the argument) that are copping the flack.  I tend to agree with the position you've taken regarding the inappropriate nature of lawful workers being interrupted by (sometimes lawful, sometimes not so lawful) protest.  But these might be assumed to be the actions of a desperate few that have lost all faith in local government.

 

And it's probably true (I don't know because I'm not there) that the career anarchist / professional protester / loony Left / Starbucks socialist element are getting involved because there'll always be a 'cause' somewhere for the itinerant fraternity to hang it's hat on.

 

But the Brit's are a stoic bunch - it takes a lot to get Mrs Miggins out of her arm chair (Poll Tax for example) but once the belief in fair and honest democracy has been denuded to such a degree that she's up and out with her tartan thermos and zimmer frame, and the inherent bias of habitual political allegiance is overcome, it results in a fairly power statement of 'people power!'  

 

 

 

 

[Gary Prentice]

Your saying nothing I can disagree with. 

 

Are we/they going about it the wrong way though. Way I see it is that the movement is reacting to the situation. Would the focus be better from the top down rather than the bottom up?

 

If the groundswell of support, nationwide, was directed at Government Departments to say that we, Joe Public, don't/won't accept mismanagement of our tree stock nationwide, it is a public amenity after all, wouldn't that be a better focus?

 

have any of the STAG members any known history of environmental action elsewhere, or is it just a case of NIMBY. 

[Khriss]

Well RT400, its a common term for that defense used in 1945-48 , it is not referencing the Holocaust , an If I was there back in those days , I would be wearing a certain Star ... K

[Khriss]

And certainly the right to protest , visually and openly - is part of Democracy , also the right of Taxpayers to point out how their money is being used is another one , K

[wjotner]

1 hour ago, Khriss said:

And certainly the right to protest , visually and openly - is part of Democracy , also the right of Taxpayers to point out how their money is being used is another one , K

All true. But when a minority is claiming to speak for everyone, then thats not democracy IMO. The protesters are regularly ignoring and overriding the interests of local residents in certain areas affected by negative effects of poor trees, including older people who are having to deal with risk of trip hazards and those who are experiencing serious property damage caused by root disturbance created by large trees pushing up tarmac and paved areas that need sorting out.

 

Those tree surgeons being sent out working at silly hours of the day are forced into doing this to get the job done. Protesters have pushed them to this extreme.

 

In terms of taxpayers money. Just think about how much money is being wasted by the delaying tactics of protesters. This work is taking more men, more time to complete. This will probably end up eating into the budget set aside for maintaining all the new and remaining trees. Probably meaning not enough to manage the trees effectively and in a few years Sheffield will end up right back where they were when this process began.

[WesD]

Out of interest if how many wouldn’t Tender for a similar contract in your home town or city?

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

1 hour ago, wjotner said:

But when a minority is claiming to speak for everyone

"...We believe removing a tree should be a last resort..."

 

https://www.commonwealthtrees.co.uk/our-services.html

 

 

 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

1 minute ago, WesD said:

Out of interest if how many wouldn’t Tender for a similar contract in your home town or city?

How many are "big" enough?

 

The bigger the company - the further away the decision makers are from the impact zone.  I wonder if Amey are regretting taking it on?  It's probably not fair that the blokes on the tools are copping the flack, no so worried about the rent-a-thug security geezers, it's the line of work they chose.

 

 

[WesD]

2 minutes ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

How many are "big" enough?

 

The bigger the company - the further away the decision makers are from the impact zone.  I wonder if Amey are regretting taking it on?  It's probably not fair that the blokes on the tools are copping the flack, no so worried about the rent-a-thug security geezers, it's the line of work they chose.

 

 

If it was just Tree Work and you could complete the work in the timeframe given would you Tender and crack on if won?

 

I would. 

[Mark J]

What's going on in Sheffield is the shameful squandering of a massively undervalued resource, in order to make it easier (cheaper) to resurface roads.

 

I feel sorry for the arbs trying to their job.

 

The protesters are doing a good thing from where I'm standing.  They've got a few people on their side who really know their stuff when it comes to challenging environmental malpractice.

 

Hopefully the outcome of all this, will make the decision makers think a bit more about the benefits of street trees.