Charges have been dropped against a Green party councillor and eight others who were arrested during protests against tree-felling in Sheffield.
Alison Teal was among four women and three men detained on suspicion of preventing workmen from chopping down a tree in Chippinghouse Road, Nether Edge, on 6 February. The following day another two women were arrested on suspicion of the same offence on an adjoining street.
All were charged with preventing lawful work under section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992, but the protesters were told on Thursday there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them.
A total of 14 protesters have been detained by police in a bitter dispute over the city council’s plans to remove hundreds of roadside trees.
Campaigners claim thousands have been chopped down since a 25-year private finance initiative (PFI) deal was signed by the Labour-run council in 2012.
Private contractor Amey is tasked with maintaining Sheffield’s 36,000 roadside trees as part of the “Streets Ahead” road maintenance agreement. The council says the roots of many trees earmarked for felling prevent wheelchair users and people pushing buggies from using pavements.
The CPS confirmed it had recently received files of evidence from South Yorkshire Police relating to nine individuals. “We have now fully reviewed all the evidence presented to us and concluded that there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction, so the cases have been discontinued,” a spokesperson said.
Natalie Bennett, the former Green party leader, said she was delighted the CPS had seen sense. “They’ve got South Yorkshire police and the council out of something of a hole,” she said. “If this had come to court, serious questions would have been asked about the actions of both of those organisations.”
Bennett, who has been selected as the party’s candidate in the Sheffield Central constituency in the next general election, said she would write to the South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, Alan Billings, asking him to investigate the police’s actions.
She said South Yorkshire police used a “novel interpretation of anti-trade union legislation” and were acting “like an arm of Amey, a private company”.
Councillor Bryan Lodge, the city’s cabinet member for the environment, said the majority of people in Sheffield wanted the work carried out. “We respectfully ask that should any protests be organised, that they are done so in a way that does not stop work and therefore cost the city money at a time where we are having to find budgets savings, including from services for vulnerable people,” he said.
He stressed that the CPS decision was not a verdict on council policy. “The Streets Ahead programme is replacing all the street trees that are taken down, and planting many more on top of this. We all have great pride in our green and leafy streets. However, these trees won’t last forever,” he said.
“Streets Ahead is the biggest investment ever seen in roads, street trees and infrastructure in the city we love. This represents our opportunity to replace trees where necessary so that they don’t just last for the next 10 years, but for the next hundred years. For our children and our grandchildren. We simply won’t get this chance again with public sector funding going the way it is.”
A spokesperson for South Yorkshire police said it was aware of and accepted the CPS’s decision to drop the charges.
