Dear Sheffielders
Please take one second to sign this petition now! :) https://bit.ly/2DZN7zY
A word from Shelley Cockayne about how important this petition is, in terms of the Sheffield Tree Scandal and local governance:
“Have you ever felt like Sheffield City Council doesn’t listen to you? It has taken over 4 years for tree campaigners to succeed in getting decision makers to the table in mediated talks to finally see some positive working on their part. This could have been done sooner, without the destruction of our environmental assets, had they operated in an inclusive political environment instead of the entrenched tribal party politics which we have here.
The Sheffield Tree campaign has been a catalyst for activism in Sheffield; it has shone a light on our broken democracy and of determined efforts to ignore those of us who put our city and communities best interests first.
One particular community group is aiming to change this mindset, a mindset exacerbated by the imposed form of Governance Sheffield had to adopt during the Blair years...a Cabinet and Strong Leader model. It’s Our City! has discovered legislation that gives us, the citizens, the power to change to a Committee model of governance. But it needs 21,000 Sheffield registered voters’ signatures to compel this.
Sheffield elects 84 local councillors, 3 per ward, but only 10 of them actually hold all the power...and ultimately the Strong Leader can overrule anything. So what’s the point in having the other 74? Even the other 46 ‘back bench’ Labour councillors have to follow the whip or face being suspended for a month. Most of us in Sheffield are therefore not being properly represented. This is not what people think they have voted for. They think they have voted for a committee.
It’s Our City! believe that a committee system is a better fit for Sheffield’s community-minded population; that more cross party collaboration could be achieved and that communities and experts can be included from the beginning rather than notified at the end of a process. How this will be set up is yet to be drawn up, but first of all those signatures are needed or it’s not going to happen!
21,000 is a lot of one-to-one conversations to have, so if you are a registered Sheffield voter please boost the IOC! online petition by signing and sharing to help make the change to a committee system and build a collaborative, resilient and visionary city.
For more information visit them on FB It’s Our City! Sheffield or www.itsoursheffield.co.uk
(The online petition has a target of 15,000 this is to reflect the amount that are being gathered on paper. If you would like to help gather signatures on paper please email info@itsoursheffield.co.uk to request copies)”
Sign the petition here: https://bit.ly/2DZN7zY
Also, this is an interesting recent paper on the politics of the Sheffield Tree Scandal, written by Prof Ian Rotherham and Matthew Flinders: https://bit.ly/2twlEkz
"What is particularly interesting about the Sheffield research was how the street-tree protests evolved to become a far wider campaign about the nature of local democracy. Put slightly differently, the street-trees issue became a ‘lightning rod’ through which a whole range of frustrations and concerns about the nature of contemporary politics was channelled and focused."
Please sign the petition, share the petition and collect signatures, if you can. Thank you for your continued support!
It’s Our City!
SORT