Dear supporters At 5 O’clock yesterday morning, law-abiding residents of a quiet street, were woken up by police officers and ordered to move their cars. When they refused to comply, they were arrested. Are we talking about some distant reaches of Russia or China here? No. This is the 21st century Labour Council of Sheffield, acting at the behest of a multi-national company, Amey. Amey felled the 8 mature trees on Rustlings Road, that thousands of campaigners have been lobbying through the appropriate avenues to save, for the last 18 months. The recommendations of the Independent Tree Panel, released at 4.25am yesterday morning on the Council website, suggested that 7 out of 8 of the trees should be retained. Yet, half an hour later, at 5am, there were tree surgeons already up these trees, chain saws running. The ITP results for Rustlings Road had been suppressed from July 2016. Sheffield City Council is using the South Yorkshire Police Force to impose the will of a private company and we cannot tolerate this. We know that many of you are feeling very angry and upset. Harness this energy! Don’t take these shocking events lying down: 1. Complain about the decision that SYP took yesterday, to use Orgreave like tactics to arrest peaceful protesters. Nobody was on strike here. This law was designed for a different set of circumstances. http://bit.ly/2fMNQrj 2. Complain to John Mothersole (SCC Chief Executive): john.mothersole@sheffield.gov.uk 3. Complain to Cllr Bryan Lodge, for the decision he took yesterday: bryan.lodge@sheffield.gov.uk 4. Complain to Steve Robinson, Head of Highways: steve.robinson@sheffield.gov.uk 5. Complain to Cllr Julie Dore, leader of SCC: julie.dore@sheffield.gov.uk 6. Complain to your local Cllrs and MPs, particularly if they are Labour: http://bit.ly/2grbazh 7. Write to the Star: letters@thestar.co.uk 8. Write to The Telegraph, The Yorkshire Post and the National press. 9. Do phone-ins to support tree campaigners on radio. 10. Comment on the draft Tree Strategy here: http://bit.ly/2g5SIbV Remember that this is a 25 year contract and there are 27,000 mature street trees at risk. An adequate tree strategy is the only way to ensure policy change. This is not going away. We did not work this hard and for this long for Rustlings Road Trees to be sacrificed for nothing. SCC, SYP and Amey got it wrong yesterday. Let us ALL let them know by how much. AFOOFA SORT