Sheffield Tree Defenders' Stump Up Appeal has just reached its target

Guest post by Alan Story


The Stump Up Sheffield (SUS) crowdfunder, “Defend the Tree Defenders: Stump Up Sheffield” ended a few minutes ago. 

You did it. We all did it. 

We’ve been successful in meeting our target of raising £27,000 to pay the legal costs of two tree defenders that were levied against them by Sheffield City Council (SCC). 

Although the Crowdfunder states that we have raised £20,470, other funds are being pooled together and there is now sufficient money available for Calvin Payne and Alastair Wright to pay these legal costs. So it is a time for celebration.

“But of course it sticks in our craw that all of this funding will be going into the coffers of SCC and that these bills were so steep because Sheffield City Council chose some of the most expensive lawyers in the country to enforce a civil injunction,” said Alan Story, a spokesperson for SUS. 

In Calvin’s case, SCC brought in a £15,000-a-day Queen’s Counsel from London as its hired gun for a November 2017 hearing against Calvin and Green Party councillor Alison Teal. (In Alison’s case, the Labour-controlled council used dodgy evidence against a fellow councillor; this evidence and her case were thrown out of court.) But Calvin, who was defended by barrister Paul Powlesand working on a pro bono basis, was convicted of breaching the Council’s injunction and given a suspended prison sentence. 

Alan Story said:

SCC made a political decision to try and crush Calvin and Alastair financially as part of a wider strategy of trying to crush the entire Sheffield trees movement but we were not cowed. Tree campaigners in Sheffield and our many allies across the country --- and the world --- said with one voice: ‘an injury to one tree campaigner is an injury to all tree campaigners’ and have stumped up marvellously.

We think it showed true Yorkshire grit and financial sacrifice and sends the message that this chainsaw massacre of OUR street trees should be ended immediately. And that mediation with tree campaigners needs to be at the top of Julie Dore’s agenda.

Since the crowdfunding campaign began 28 days ago, a total of 796 supporters have contributed £20,470, plus more than £800 in donations via PayPal. If you scroll through the 343 comments listed on the SUScrowdfunding page , you will see both the passions (and intellect) this issue has aroused, as well as the geographic breadth of the support. Money was donated by people from places such as British Columbia, Missouri, Brussels and Australia as well as across the UK in locations such as the Shetland Islands, London, Dorset and beyond. 

A significant pot of additional money has come in to SUS from the recent benefit concert of well-known Sheffield musicians; it was quickly sold out and was attended by 800 people. As Pitsmoor-born Richard Hawley said in a SUS video shot at the concert, the Council needs to admit that it has “ f***ed up” over trees. A lifetime Labour voter, Hawley says he has backed away from supporting Labour only twice: once over the Iraq War and now over the local street trees crisis. 

The official accounting of all the funds raised by this campaign will be released next week.
But the fund-raising efforts of the SUS team have not ceased. On Sunday 22 April at the Crookes Social Club, we are hosting the “Let’s Hear it for the Trees!” benefit concert. 

More details Here’s a YouTube video of one of the talented musicians, Nancy Kerr, who will be performing that night. LINK  

Money raised from the benefit gig will go towards future legal costs associated with Sheffield tree defenders.And it may well be needed. In what is obvious harassment, South Yorkshire Police keep arresting tree campaigners on baseless charges. In the most recent shameful case, charges were dropped this week against a 73-year-old retired firefighter LINK. 

We think the campaign was successful because, first and foremost, we were working on a clear case of injustice that touched a lot of people. But, as well: 

•          We had excellent high-profile endorsers including Caroline Lucas, George Monbiot, Maxine Peake, and Ken Loach. (Many more endorsers joined later.)
•          We had a team of 17 people of many talents who worked together on a co-operative and democratic basis. (The copy for the crowdfunder went through five drafts!)
•          We produced two videos (still available for viewing) and reached out widely across various social media. For example, we posted our crowdfunding message on +50 Facebook groups, which also spread the Sheffield trees saga to tens of thousands of people. Twitter tweeted merrily. 

At a February 7th  Sheffield City Council meeting, SCC tree felling czar Bryan Lodge claimed: “I travel around to different places… and it (the Sheffield chainsaw massacre) is not a topic of conversation in Southampton.” Take another trip Bryan. 

The SUS team was pulled together by NO STUMP CITY. Sheffield Tree Action Groups (STAG) was also a listed sponsor.

On behalf of Stump Up Sheffield
Alan Story
no.stump.city@gmail.com

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Brent Full Council Meeting moved to December 8th

Following rumours that the Full Council Meeting due on Novembver 17th was being cancelled or delayed I emailed Democratic Serrvices this afternoon for confirmation and asked for the reason.  I had heard that it was connected with legal cases currently in process.

Peter Goss, Democratic Services Manager, sent this at 5.29pm:

Councillors have this afternoon been notified that the Full Council meeting on 17 November has been moved to 8 December in order that the outcome of the consultation on the borough plan can be considered as part of the 1st reading of the budget.  The web site has been amended to reflect this change.

Breeding at the top of Brent Council

The tangle of previous employment, business and personal relationships among the top management of Brent Council is rapidly becoming a talking point in the Civic Centre.

The case of Cara Davani, Head of Human Resources and Andy Potts, Principal Employment and Education Lawyer in the Legal and Procurement Department is particularly colourful.  Fiona Ledden heads up Legal and Procurement.

Cara Davani has recently announced that Andy Potts has become a partner in Kebulak her dog breeding business. LINK

Terrier World LINK congratulated the breeders by posting a picture of their twins who were born in June. (scxroll down)

The name of one of the twins is purely coincidental. (I hope)

It's simple: my taxes should not go to a war profiteer like Veolia

Presentation by Dan Judelson of Jews for Justice for Palestinians and a Labour Party member to Brent Executive 14 October 2013. The Executive voted to give the 9 year multi-million Public Realm contract to Veolia.

Collecting waste is one of the most basic, fundamental responsibilities of a council. Ask someone what they want in terms of local services and chances are high that they will begin any such list with “empty my bins.”

Over the last three and a half decades, there has been an enormous change in the delivery of these services and a particular upshot of that is that a waste collection contract may now be part of a lucrative business.

So it is entirely understandable that Brent residents should ask questions about where council money is being spent. One of the bidders – the remaining bidder – for this public realm contract is part of a company that derives income directly form illegal activity.

I do not want to rehash in detail all of the arguments about how this happens; I know councillors and executive members will already be aware of much of this thanks to the debate over the past few months. Yet it is worth reminding ourselves of the basics of what happens at the Tovlan landfill site, operated by Veolia, in the Jordan Valley.

It handles waste from illegal Israeli settlements on land that would form part of the putative Palestinian state. Not a pennyworth of licence fee is paid by Veolia to the Palestinian authority for this privilege. In the meantime, Israeli institutions from the government to the Army to local settlers are actively trying to take over and control the Jordan Valley.

The government of Israel financially promotes illegal settlement in the Jordan Valley. According to the Israeli NGO B’tselem ,”the average grant per capita to Israeli settlers in the West bank [has been] approximately 57% higher than the average expenditure per capita for Israeli citizens inside Israel.”

Furthermore, the head of the Jordan Valleys settlers group has stated explicitly that “Approving the programme [of expansion] will change the face of the Jordan Valley beyond recognition – beyond recognition – and attract returning sons and families from outside to come to the region. Although a political cloud – an interesting euphemism – hangs over the region, this is the way to attract residents. (Italics mark my emphasis.)

So it is crucial to recognise that we are not talking about some abstract or vague connection with illegal activity. Operation of the Tovlan site contributes directly to sustaining illegal settlements and their expansion in the Jordan Valley, something that has been acknowledged as illegal by governments around the world – including that of Israel – since at least 1968.

These are issues that have been raised during the campaign but I raise them now because they leave a number of questions unanswered.

1. We have heard that Brent Council Procurement and Legal Services have been determined to exclude such political factors from the bidding process on the basis of a legal opinion but we have heard also that this advice has been embargoed. Brent Council has to explain, why the exclusion, why the embargo?

2. We have heard, too, about the potential for legal action from Veolia should they be excluded from the bidding process. Yet they have been excluded or have not been awarded contracts in the West Midlands, in Ealing, Richmond and East Sussex. They have been denied business in Dublin. Utrecht and The Hague – not to mention, far closer to home, the North and the West London Waste Authorities. I would like to know if Brent Council consulted with any of these bodies to try ad establish the ground on which these contracts were not awarded or the bidder excluded from the tendering process.

3. Current EU guidelines state that the EU will not enter into any contract or relationship with a company or organisation that operates in the illegally occupied West Bank. This is sure to affect EU law across the 27 states over the duration of the public realm contract being discussed here tonight. Has this factor been considered by the council executive?

4. Given what we know about Veolia’s operations in the West Bank, what consideration has been given to attaching conditions or riders to this very long contract, offering Veolia an opportunity to divest itself of the illegal operations we have heard about tonight.

Councillors, there are members of the Green Party, the Labour Party, of Stop the War, of Brent PSC and I myself am a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. But we are here tonight to decide the best course of action for Brent residents no matter what their political allegiance of campaign affiliation.

Hello. My name is Dan Judelson. I have lived in Algernon Road, Kilburn for the past 15 years and as a Brent resident and council-tax payer, I object most strenuously to my taxes going to fill the coffers of a war profiteer like Veolia. It’s as simple as that.