Protester climbs Sheffield's Vernon Oak to prevent felling

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Another example of the perils of the private finance initiative (PFI) from my home town of Sheffield. Sheffield became notorious over the years for the poor state of its roads, so Sheffield Council entered into a PFI contract with a company called Amey for them to take over road maintenance over a 25 year period.

Amey have decided to chop down as many of the trees lining Sheffield's pavement's as possible early on the contract to save their own costs, which has caused a huge amount of anger with local residents, leading to confrontations like this. Many of these trees are very old, and some were planted to honour the fallen in the fist world war. At every turn the council has backed Amey over the local residents to an absurd degree.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-41634518

A man has climbed a 150-year-old oak tree in Sheffield to prevent it from being felled.

Sheffield City Council put a notice on Vernon Road in Dore last week to announce that the Vernon Oak would be cut down this week.

Campaigners have since held a candlelit vigil under the tree. A protester, who has been in the tree since 07:00 BST, has a sleeping bag and said he is prepared to stay there "all week if necessary".

TV presenter Vernon Kay has also made a plea to save "Vernon", as the Sheffield tree is affectionately known by campaigners.

https://www.ft.com/content/e3641c8a-835e-11e7-a4ce-15b2513cb3ff?mhq5j=e6

https://savesheffieldtrees.org.uk/the-streets-ahead-pfi-contract/

The Contract:

• runs for 25 years, ending in 2037.

• will cost taxpayers £2.2 billion over the contract’s lifetime

• was negotiated behind closed doors – there was no discussion of the contract in the Council Chamber and it did not go before the Scrutiny Board

• despite repeated requests to see the contract, the only version that the Council have released for public examination is unusually heavily redacted

• considering how ready the Council have been to defend the contract, it came as a shock when The Guardian revealed that the Council Leader, Julie Dore, and other senior Councillors had not seen even seen an unredacted contract.