News

As spring turns to summer, sort of, we hope you are all enjoying the longer days and the lush growth from the recent rain. Let’s hope for a warm sunny Bank Holiday weekend. Fingers crossed!

Tree Planting Project

We don’t yet have any news as to whether the locations for STAG funded trees have been approved by Amey and Sheffield City Council (SCC). As a reminder, we submitted 20 locations in the Spital Hill area, 5 in Low Edges and 3 in Jordanthorpe. Hopefully, we will hear in the next few weeks so we can submit the final order of locations and species. This street tree planting project will use up the STAG Legal Fund and most of the residual STAG monies, as agreed by Members, so we will need to look for further sources of funding for any more tree planting. 

It may be relevant to our submission that next week there will be a review by the Sheffield Street Tree Partnership (SSTP) of the whole process for community funded planting. We’ll keep you posted.

Isabel as a STAG rep was involved in a discussion in one of the SSTP working groups about  the possibility of producing a Guide to Community Tree Planting. This would need input from those who have successfully arranged for community funded street trees to be planted as well as information from Amey and SCC. 

Goodbye to the Chelsea Road elm  

(this is an extract from Paul Selby’s newsletter to NESST members)

“Regular readers will know that the Chelsea Road elm tree caught Dutch Elm Disease in summer 2024. It had been catching it every year since I began monitoring it in 2016, but each year was able to “wall off” the disease at about 1m from the attack point, and successfully survive.

Sadly, from what the experts tell me, the freak soaking wet summer conditions of 2024 meant the spores of the DED fungus were able to spread quicker, meaning the tree was unable to “wall off” the disease quick enough.

In 2025, the tree looked very unhealthy, with about 5% of the leaves it normally has, but it didn’t die, unlike what would be expected of a fully susceptible tree. I therefore agreed with Amey that they shouldn’t fell the tree, until we saw what its leaf burst looked like in late-April 2026.

Sadly, the leaf burst is even worse this year, at less than 1% of a healthy tree. The tree will not survive, and will become dangerous, if it isn’t already.

I therefore reluctantly agreed with Amey that the Chelsea Road elm tree will need to be felled this year, likely in June. I will keep you posted on timings.”

Public consultation on trees to be felled

The STAG reps to the Sheffield Street Tree Partnership have received an email from SCC Highways about 10 trees due for felling and replacement. The first 6 in the table below are called “condition fells” ie, they are dead, diseased or in severe decline, and so the public are notified but not consulted. 

The bottom 4 in the list are relatively newly planted Ulmus New Horizon on Derek Dooley Way and felling would be for the construction of a new right turn lane. A public consultation of 3 weeks will be undertaken to comply with Section 115 Environment Act. Replacement species and compensatory planting numbers are not yet agreed so the SSTP will be consulted on these. 

Location	Species to be felled	Reason for felling (specific details given in Amey/SCC spreadsheet)	Replacement species
SUNDOWN ROAD	Sorbus aucuparia	Dead, diseased or in significant decline	Cercis siliqustrum
CEMETERY AVENUE	Sorbus aucuparia	ditto	Cercis siliqustrum
HALLOWMOOR ROAD	Fraxinus excelsior	ditto	Ulmus ‘New Horizon’
ROXTON ROAD	Malus sylvestris	ditto	Cornus mas
HARCOURT ROAD	Sorbus aucuparia	ditto	Cercis siliqustrum
HARCOURT ROAD	Alnus incana	ditto	Carpinus betulus
Derek Dooley Way	Ulmus New Horizon	Removal required to facilitate new dedicated turning lane construction on Derek Dooley Way	To be decided by design team
Derek Dooley Way	Ulmus New Horizon	Ditto	To be decided by design team
Derek Dooley Way	Ulmus New Horizon	Ditto	To be decided by design team
Derek Dooley Way	Ulmus New Horizon	Ditto	To be decided by design team

Campaign display at Town Hall

A reminder that you have just over 2 weeks to see the display of tree campaign memorabilia in the case at the entrance to the Town Hall. The display is due to end in early June after a 3 month “residence”

Lasting legacy of the Sheffield Street Tree Campaign

There was a lot of discussion both when campaigners were putting together the display and at the plaque launch event about the value of keeping some kind of lasting record of the Sheffield Street Tree Campaign, as it was such an important movement both for Sheffield and further afield. Of course we have the plaque on the Town Hall but there is so much more out there that needs preserving for posterity. Artefacts, photographs, videos, websites, social media records etc. 

Preliminary plans are being made so please hang on to anything you have as there will be a call for items, digital and material, when we have prepared a repository for them. 

Some of us will remove all the items from the Town Hall display in early June. Anyone who would like their items back can let us know and we can arrange for collection. We will keep the rest of items from the display together with a view to including them in any future archive and exhibitions. 

Vote on new constitution

Following the AGM in April and previous emails where a proposed new constitution was explained, STAG Members were all invited to vote on a proposal to adopt a new STAG Constitution. The closing deadline for voting was midnight on 18th May and votes have now been counted and verified. 42 members voted, with 37 voting for the proposal and 5 against, giving a large majority of 88% in favour. 

This means that adoption of the new constitution has been approved by members. This new constitution has more clearly defined purposes for STAG and simpler procedures allowing the organisation to move forward with more focus. 

Recent meetings

AGM 20.4.26

Dates for your diary

Sheffield Green Spaces Forum 

Weds 20.5.26 6.30 for 7pm Derby Street

Sheffield Environment Weeks 

Sat 2nd May to Sun 14th June 2026 

SheffieldEnvironmentWeeks – Sheffield Environment Weeks   including talks by various community activists on Sat 6th June 1pm Carpenter Room, Sheffield Central Library

 with best wishes from 

The Sheffield Tree Action Group (STAG) Committee