Dates for your diary
A reminder that the deadline for voting on the SSTP proposal mentioned below is midnight on 18th January
STAG General Meeting Saturday 7th February 2-4pm Venue: Sharrow Community Centre
STAG Committee meeting Monday 16th February 7.30pmVenue tbc
STAG AGM Monday 20th April time and venue tbc
News
Street Tree Planting
You said….
In the STAG Development meeting on 13th September, members were keen for STAG to be involved in getting street trees planted. A proposal to use the money in the STAG Legal Fund has been agreed by members.
We did…
We continue to make good progress towards finding suitable locations for planting street trees. Site visits have been made with local community groups in Burngreave, Low Edges, Jordanthorpe and Batemoor. Paul Selby is offering advice from his extensive experience of getting street trees planted in the Nether Edge and Sharrow areas over the last 5 years, and we are in touch with other STAG members who have worked to get street trees planted in other areas. It is obviously good to share experiences of what does and doesn’t help. The aim is to submit proposed locations to Amey by mid February.
New co-optees to the STAG Committee
We are delighted that 6 people have agreed to be co-opted onto the STAG Committee, bringing positive attitudes, ideas, experience and skills to help STAG move forward. We thank Andrew Kondakor, Anne Barr, Fran Kime, Sue Kondakor, Tina Sampson-Smith and Wendy Hawksley. Four of them were able to attend the recent Committee meeting on 6.1.26 and made positive contributions.
Plaque
As described in the December Newsletter #4, after the Lowcock Inquiry in 2023 Sheffield City Council agreed to commission a plaque to be installed in the Town Hall entrance in recognition of the street tree campaign. A group of tree campaigners (the Plaque Group) worked systematically to agree on the text of the plaque and then a design by Lydia Monks was chosen in a competitive process. The design has now been approved by SCC and the brass founder is on track to complete the plaque by early March.
A positive meeting was held on 12th January between the Plaque Group and Council Officers to discuss an official event to unveil the plaque, probably in early March. The Plaque Group are working on plans with the help of Council Officers so that the unveiling event celebrates the achievements of the street tree campaign with the publicity it warrants.
We hope there will be an opportunity for socialising with old campaign friends immediately after the unveiling and in the evening. If any STAG members and supporters have thoughts or suggestions about this plaque unveiling event, and or a social event afterwards, please post them to STAG Members Discussion Facebook Group or email contact@sheffieldtreeactiongroup.org
Look out for further details. Let’s make this unveiling event a true celebration of what we all achieved together.
New STAG Website
As described in the December newsletter #4, the new STAG website has been created at no cost to STAG and can be found at https://www.sheffieldtreeactiongroup.org
All newsletters will be published there with updates on the street tree planting project as well as minutes of meetings for those who want more detail of decision making. The plan is to create links to the old STAG website since there is much important historical information on there about the tree campaign.
Please take a look! Feedback welcome.
STAG representatives on the Sheffield Street Tree Partnership (SSTP)
You said…..
At the STAG Development meeting on 13th September members said they thought it important for STAG to be represented on the SSTP
We did…..
STAG has not previously had an agreed way of selecting STAG representatives to the Sheffield Street Tree Partnership. As part of the current STAG committee’s work to improve how the organisation functions, at the STAG General Meeting on 11th December 2025 we circulated a proposal about the selection of STAG representatives to the SSTP. .The draft minutes of the General Meeting, including the proposal, can be found here: https://www.sheffieldtreeactiongroup.org/stag-general-meeting-minutes-11th-december-2025-7-815p-m/
Members should now have received an email explaining the proposal and a voting form. The cut off date for voting is midnight on the 18th January.
Sheffield Street Tree Partnership (SSTP)
The SSTP now has four working groups. These are:
- Planting, Biodiversity and Engagement
- Sheffield Street Tree Wardens
- Data Gathering, Monitoring and Evaluation
- Management and Third Part Claims
The interim STAG representatives, Helen McIlroy and Isabel O’Leary, have been asked which working groups they would like to be on and have responded the Planting, Biodiversity and Engagement group.
In addition to those four working groups there is another looking at the Core Investment Period streets. Paul Selby gives an update on this below.
The SSTP continues to develop a plan to refresh the Sheffield Street Tree Strategy and to deliver engagement and events across the city and in priority areas.
Discussions are ongoing about managing the Tree Wardens, the previous manager having resigned due to ill-health.
There are plans to develop a map-based tool to help identify suitable tree species for planting in specific street locations, with the aim to have something usable in 2026.
Funding is being explored for tree planting and for staff, resources and events. A map has been created to show potential planting spaces and species allocations identified by tree wardens last summer. This map will support funding bids.
The possibility of an Urban Tree Festival in May or June has been raised by Catherine Nuttgens, urban forester who is part of the SSTP. She would like to run this in partnership with other tree organisations. If any STAG members or supporters are interested in this please contact the committee via contact@sheffieldtreeactiongroup.org
The SSTP is working to bring the largest tree conference, the Tree Officer Conference, to Sheffield in November, with the suggestion this would be an opportunity to highlight Sheffield, its people and its trees.
Update on the remaining threatened Core Investment Period trees
Further to the previous update in the previous Newsletter, there has been further progress by the CIP Task and Finish Group that includes STAG EC member Paul Selby, street tree campaigner Christine King, elected Councillors in the relevant Ward, Council and Amey staff, independent Highways Engineers from Mott Macdonald, and Street Tree Partnership Group Chair Nathan Edwards.
Steade Road, Thornsett Road, Crescent Road and Chippinghouse Road have now all been signed off with a consensus on the designs to save trees on those roads, without significant reductions in parking available. On Thornsett Road, a couple of trees with Sooty Bark Disease and Phytophthora will be felled around 2 years in advance of when they would have been anyway, negating the need for build outs in those locations. Residents on these roads will soon be informed about the specific proposals, and this should mean resurfacing of pavement and road surfaces should be complete prior to Autumn 2026, on those roads.
Sheldon Road was also discussed, and clear options for how to resolve the complex issues on this road were agreed at a high level. The Council and Amey have now gone away to consider how they might progress those high level options. There is acceptance that it may be at least 6 months before we return to discuss Sheldon Road.
Between January and Easter, the plan is to discuss the remaining CIP roads in the Nether Edge and Sharrow Ward, with the hope of agreeing pragmatic designs on those roads too. They are:
Kenbourne Road
St Ronan’s Road
Woodstock Road
Sandford Grove Road
Ladysmith Avenue
Edgebrook Road
After Easter, the current intention is to move on to discuss the final remaining CIP roads (in two other Wards). These are:
Ecclesall Road
Hunter House Road
Oxford Street
Spring Hill Road
Cliffefield Road
We will continue to update STAG members and supporters in these newsletters, on the Members Facebook Group and on the wider STAG Public Facebook Group.
If you have any questions, feel free to email Paul Selby at selbypaul@hotmail.com
STAG organisational issues
The STAG committee continues to work to make STAG function better as an organisation. Work is ongoing to simplify the Constitution to make it more suitable for STAG as an organisation now rather than immediately after the campaigning phase. A proposal will be put forward for a member vote before the AGM on 20th April. The current constitution can be found at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EwVLPyiUkUiB2TnmdYDB2g16ugWd-GGr?usp=share_link
Nominations for a new Committee will open on 9th March.
Recent meetings
STAG Committee Meeting 6.1.25 Minutes to be published on STAG Members Facebook, in the Google Drive and on the new STAG website https://www.sheffieldtreeactiongroup.org/
Plaque Group meeting 12.1.25
More Dates for your diary
Community Wassailing Sat 17th January 12-1 Woodseats Community Garden
Community Wassailing Sun 18th January 2.15-3pm Meersbrook Walled Garden
Darnall Tree Planting Sat 24th January 11-2pm Mather Road Recreation ground in Darnall. SCC Community Forestry will be planting 10 new trees as part of a new avenue