PRESS RELEASE FROM NO STUMP CITY - 7:00 a.m. 23 March +++++++++++++++++ Sheffield City Council has been given an offer that is just too good for it to refuse. The shadow minister for the environment of the Council’s own party, the Labour Party, has agreed to step into the Sheffield trees dispute and act as a mediator between the Council and tree campaigners. Over the past six months, almost 12,000 people have signed a petition that requested that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn act as such a mediator. (https://www.change.org/p/jeremy-corbyn-mp-jeremy-corbyn-ple… ) But we are sure Sheffield tree campaigners will be pleased that Corbyn has asked a member of his shadow cabinet to act in his place. In her 20 March statement, MP Sue Hayman said she had made an initial mediation offer some time ago after meetings with Council leader Julie Dore and trees czar Brian Lodge. In a press release, Hayman said she had “reiterated my offer of assistance in mediating the situation between protesters and the council to try and find a way through.” [https://suehayman.org.uk/update-on-sheffield-trees/ ] She also called for “pause” in tree felling in what she called a “formal offer” to help mediate. But it is far from clear that Dore and Lodge will accept the Corbyn/Hayman political lifeline they have unexpectedly been offered. The 55+ members of the Labour Group at SCC are hardly raving Corbynistas and the situation in Sheffield has a number of parallels to the situation in Haringey. In that London borough, a right wing Labour-controlled council had embarked on a very unpopular private/ public housing scheme. The National Executive Committee of the Labour Party intervened (by a 39-0 vote) in January 2018 and ordered that the Haringey project be halted. One of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet ministers was also sent in as a mediator. Soon afterwards, the leader of the Labour Council resigned. [https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/…/labours-ruling-nec-votes…) “Of course, this is only an offer to mediate the Sheffield dispute, but who knows, maybe we are starting to see the stirrings of Haringey North,” said a spokesperson for NO STUMP CITY. “Council leader Dore is being hemmed in on all sides. When a BBC journalist told her the other day that Sheffield residents wanted to know why so many police officer were being deployed to guard Amey’s tree fellings, Dore replied: ‘ well, ask the police.’ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/…/anger-over-sheffield-s-plan-to-fell-… (at 7:13)] That’s not the response of a confident politician on top of her brief.” “Yes, this is only an offer to mediate and Dore & Lodge have not yet accepted…and so I think we need to keep up the pressure --- under trees and outside local Labour party meetings --- until they do,” the spokesperson continued. In recent days, the dispute has descended into farce and the reputation of South Yorkshire Police been badly tarnished. On Wednesday --- to calls of “Amey’s police” --- a SYP officer arrested a woman for blowing her plastic toy trumpet while noisy chainsaws ripped down a nearby healthy tree on Rivelin Valley Road. (One Tweet of the footage had more than 100,000 views.) “Tootgate” (or “Trumpetgate” if you prefer) was followed on Thursday by the arrest of a newly-ordained vicar banging on her tambourine. But Labour Party insiders have been taking the pulse of members of the public as well as members of the local party …and the sound has hardly been melodic. * A total of 800 people attended a benefit concert on Friday night (with Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley --- and who could more true-blue Sheffielders than they are!) that was held to defray the legal costs of tree campaigners. * As of last night, a total of 646 supporters had donated £16,821 in two weeks to a crowdfunding campaign with the same objective. [https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/stump-up-sheffield/ ] * Campaigner numbers under trees have not diminished and spirits remain high. * Newspaper editorials have raked over the Council both for the huge expenditures of police resources on street trees duty and in response to the revelations of SCC’s ongoing “economies with the truth” -- to be charitable -- that are being uncovered almost daily by Yorkshire Post journalist Chris Burn. (Burn’s coverage has put the local media to shame.) Meanwhile, as the 3 May local elections approach, local Labour is dissenting in droves from the “personal truths” of Dore & Lodge and their discredited PFI deal in the era of Carillion. * in the past two weeks, two LP MPs ( Blomfield and Haigh) and a suspended LP MP ( O’Mara) have called for a halt to felling and an immediate mediated settlement. * a growing number of Branch Labour Parties and Constituency Labour parties within all three of their constituencies have also calling for an immediate mediated settlement of this dispute. * on the upcoming Tuesday, the Sheffield Trades Council is expected to pass a similar resolution. (In the spring of 2016, the Sheff TUC leadership backed SCC to the hilt on the trees issue.) Things are become unglued --- and rapidly so --- for local Labour. They know in their hearts that Richard Hawley was right was he said in a videoed interview on Friday that SCC had “f***ed up” over trees. Left-wing local LP local activists fall silent if asked to defend PFIs or Dore. And they all know very well that arresting a 57-year-old woman for blowing a toy trumpet does not go down well in any part of our fair city. So let’s dedicate this latest step forward by our cause --- and this retreat by Labour and, we hope, towards co-operation --- to her delightful cheekiness and musical inspiration in the face of adversity at mid-week.