In-person and online, open to members and supporters.

Present: Chris Ball, Sue Kondakor, Andrew Kondakor, Woll Newall, Isabel O’Leary, Alison Teal, Helen McIlroy, Mark James. Online: Christine King, Jane Miller, Justin Buxton, David Long
Apologies: Ruth Hubbard, Paul Selby, Asha Dube, Kythe Beaumont, Julian Baker, Dave Dilner, Tina Sampson-Smith

The second hybrid (face to face and online) STAG meeting since the new committee was elected was a ‘development’ meeting in order to plan for and discuss the future of STAG. The format for the meeting is shown in this presentation.

Helen McIlroy presented the history of the tree campaign from before STAG was formed to remind ourselves of this, and then the meeting considered the previous action plan and considered what actions STAG might focus on in the near future.

For the meeting, street tree planting seemed an obvious area to try to get involved in and Nicola Gilbert kindly sent some slides to illustrate the process she went through to get trees planted at Banner Cross. It’s a complicated process to get street trees planted (much more complicated than planting in parks or other green spaces) needing Amey to be involved and funding to be raised. Trees need to be ordered well before the planting season in autumn/winter. Committee members commented that they hoped also to draw on Paul Selby’s knowledge and experience as through NESST he has raised £300,000 to plant 357 new street trees over the last 5 winters.

As the attendance was small, the discussion part of the meeting was informal, with views, ideas and suggestions being contributed round the circle.

The overall steer of the meeting was:
• For STAG to focus down on a small number of practical/do-able areas and tasks e.g. tree planting, SSTP.
• To acknowledged the existing annual plan as being somewhat impractical and unachievable.
• Was about the importance of keeping STAG going, to improve the tree quality and canopy of Sheffield. and keep a vital eye on the Council and Amey in their work related to trees, and following up the Lowcock Report.