‘Sorry’ doesn’t cut it, say Sheffield Tree Massacre campaigners

A new grovelling apology from city leaders still finds residents angry about the scandal nearly a decade later, writes Colin Drury

Protesters stand next to a rare Huntingdon elm on Chelsea Road in Sheffield (PA)

As he stands on Abbeydale Park Rise in Sheffield, Justin Buxton considers the empty space where two of his favourite trees had once stood.

They were a pair of cherry blossoms planted in the Fifties as part of a residents’ scheme to improve the street. For six decades, they had brought colour and life to this suburban road. At Christmas, they were decked out in lights to raise money for the local children’s hospital.

Then in 2015 contractors working on behalf of Sheffield City Council came in and chopped them down.