Persons Unknown: The Battle for Sheffield's Street Trees

by Calvin Payne, Simon Crump, Julie Stribley

Herein are first hand testimonies and stories of people in Sheffield (and a bloke on a bike from Barnsley) who took direct action to protect the environment or maybe just ‘their’ tree, or all our trees on our streets. All defied their Council; some their neighbours and friends. Some defied the High Court.

The book includes photographs of the protests and direct action that took place. Simon Crump was one of those protesting – and arrested for his trouble on several occasions - against the felling of thousands of street trees, to be replaced with saplings as part of Sheffield City Council's £2.2 billion highways improvement scheme.

The protests erupted after campaigners argued many of those felled since 2012 had been removed unnecessarily. Protesters also said many trees were felled because their roots were simply in the way of road resurfacing methods. In their peaceful protests, protesters linked arms around trees. During one of these protests Crump was placed inside a tree chipper, a machine normally used for reducing large tree trunks into smaller woodchips.

Paperback

Published January 31, 2022