Sheffield City Council staff will be stepping back from direct involvement to allow Sir Mark Lowcock KCB to develop the work of the Inquiry as he sees fit. All questions about the work of the Inquiry should now be directed to streettreesinquiry@weightmans.com.
Following the signing of the Co-operative Agreement between Labour and Green Groups, we have established an Independent Inquiry into the management of the street trees dispute.
The purpose of this inquiry is set out in the Independent Chair's Terms of Reference.
Sir Mark Lowcock issued an inquiry announcement on 15 December 2022.
We want to make this inquiry as transparent as possible and keep the public up to date with its progress. This page will share:
- updates on the inquiry progress and next steps
- dates and times for all public meetings and evidence sessions
- public meeting minutes and other documentation
- how to have your say
Inquiry progress
Following completion of a robust national recruitment process, Sir Mark Lowcock has now been formally appointed as the Independent Chair of the Inquiry.
Sir Mark joins the inquiry as a highly regarded public servant with 35 years’ experience in public policy and international affairs. Until 2021 Sir Mark Lowcock held the position of United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. His previous work has also seen him negotiate on international treaties and agreements covering climate change, biodiversity and forests as well as supervising UK aid programmes to protect and sustainably manage tropical forests and other environmental assets.
Sir Mark’s previous roles also include Permanent Secretary for the Department for International Development (DFID) and Head of Environment Policy at the Overseas Development Administration, the predecessor to the Department for International Development. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development.
Sir Mark has issued progress reports.
Public Hearings
From September 2022, Sir Mark will be holding public hearings. They will be broadcast live online. This page will be updated with a listing for each hearing before they commence. Each session will also be available to watch online shortly after it ends.
The public hearings will support the ongoing recovery in Sheffield from the street trees dispute, by providing an opportunity for those affected by the dispute to understand what happened, why actions were taken and to hear the story of the dispute from each other’s perspectives.
Each hearing will be a conversation between the Independent Inquiry Chair and a person relevant to the dispute who has been invited to attend. They will discuss key elements of the dispute, and the Chair will pose questions.
Public hearings will be broadcast on the following dates:
8 December 2022
- 9:00am - Andy Milner, Chief Executive Officer, Amey, 2015-2019
- 10:30am - Nathan Edwards, Chair, Sheffield Street Tree Partnership
- 11:30am - Cllr Terry Fox, Leader, Sheffield City Council
- 1:30pm - Cllr Joe Otten, Chair of the Waste and Street Scene Policy Committee, Sheffield City Council
- 3:00pm - Kate Josephs, Chief Executive Officer, Sheffield City Council
29 November 2022
- 9:30am - James Henderson, Director of Policy, Performance and Communications, Sheffield City Council
- 11:00am - Peter Anderson, Managing Director Transport Infrastructure, Amey
- 1:30pm - Darren Butt, (formerly) Account Director, Amey
27 October 2022
26 October 2022
- 11:30am – Paul Brooke
- 3:00pm – Cllr Bryan Lodge, Co-Chair Finance Sub-Committee, Sheffield City Council
25 October 2022
5 October 2022
- 10:00am - Chris Rust
- 2:00pm - Andy Buck, (formerly) Chair of the Independent Tree Panel
- 3:30pm - Lewis Dagnall, (formerly) Councillor for Gleadless Valley ward and Cabinet Member for Environment, Street Scene and Climate Change, Sheffield City Council
4 October 2022
29 September 2022
28 September 2022
- 10:00am - Dr Alan Billings, Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire
- 11:30am - Andrew Lockley, (formerly) Chair of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner’s Advisory Panel on Policing Protests
27 September 2022
- 9:30am - Alison Teal
- 11:30am - Professor Ian Rotherham
- 2:00pm - Christine King, Sheffield Tree Action Groups
22 September 2022
Independent Inquiry timeline
The key milestones in establishing the inquiry are:
15 December 2022
Inquiry announcement.
22 September 2022
Inquiry public hearings commenced.
1 April 2022
Inquiry commenced.
9/10 March 2022
Sir Mark published the final Terms of Reference for the Inquiry.
January to March 2022
Sir Mark engaged broadly to develop the terms of reference for the Independent Inquiry, seeking to establish an approach that is acceptable to all parties. Recruitment to the team supporting the Inquiry also began.
19 January 2022
The Council’s Co-operative Executive approved a recommendation to appoint Sir Mark Lowcock. You can find the report making this recommendation in Appointment of the Independent Chair of the Local Enquiry into the Street Trees Dispute under Documents.
11 January 2022
We held the Independent Chair Interview Day. This included an opportunity for the public to meet the short-listed candidates. Following this it was recommended that Sir Mark Lowcock be appointed as the Independent Chair of the Inquiry. You can read more about this on our Sheffnews page.
10 December 2021
Applications for the position of Independent Chair of the Inquiry closed.
15 November 2021
Open recruitment to the position of Independent Chair of the Inquiry started. This followed an application process designed to identify an independent person, including an opportunity for key stakeholders to meet the short-listed candidates.
9 September 2021
We ran an in-person public meeting as a second opportunity for stakeholders to engage, comment or raise concerns. You can find a summary of the key points raised in this meeting in the Independent Street Trees Inquiry Public Meeting – Record of Questions and Answers under Documents.
1 September 2021
We ran an online public meeting open to all stakeholders to brief them in more detail on our planned approach to the inquiry and offer an opportunity to engage, comment, or raise concerns. Watch a recording of the meeting.
26 August 2021
Weightmans LLP are appointed as independent legal advisers for the duration of the Independent Inquiry. They will provide support and advice to council officers around recruitment of the Independent Chair and will remain in place to support the chair once appointed.
14 July 2021
Building on this commitment, we set out the initial steps towards appointing an Independent Chair for the Inquiry.
19 May 2021
Following local elections the Leaders of the Labour and Green groups in Sheffield City Council signed a Co-operation Agreement. This contained a commitment to "appoint an independent person to conduct a local non-statutory inquiry into the management of the street trees dispute."