Streets Ahead Contract - Highway Tree replacement Performance Requirement

The request was successful.

Rebecca Hammond

Dear Sheffield City Council,

The Streets Ahead contract includes a Performance Requirement relating to the replacement of Highway Trees.

6.38 The Service Provider shall replace Highway Trees in accordance with the Annual Tree Management Programme at a rate of not less than 200 per year so that 17,500 Highway Trees are replaced by the end of the Term, such replacement to be in accordance with the highway Tree Replacement Policy, unless Authority Approval has been obtained or deviation from this policy.

My questions are:

1 - Please can you state whether this Performance Requirements is mandatory or optional.

2 - If it is mandatory, will there be any penalties or financial adjustments for failure to meet this Performance Requirement?

Yours faithfully,

Rebecca Hammond

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Dear Rebecca Hammond,
 
Thank you for your recent request for information relating to Streets
Ahead Contract which we received on 30/07/18.
 
This has been logged as a Freedom of Information Request, and will be
dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act.  The reference number for
your request can be found above.
 
The Freedom of Information Act states that we must respond to you within
20 working days, therefore, you should expect to hear a response from us
by 28/08/18.
 
In the meantime, if you have any queries please, contact us at the email
address below.
 
Thank you.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Sheffield City Council
PO Box 1283
Sheffield, S1 1UJ
Email: [1][Sheffield City Council request email]
P Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to
 
_____________________________________________
From: Rebecca Hammond
[[2]mailto:[FOI #503664 email]]
Sent: 30 July 2018 10:17
To: FOI
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Streets Ahead Contract - Highway
Tree replacement Performance Requirement
 
Dear Sheffield City Council,
 
The Streets Ahead contract includes a Performance Requirement relating to
the replacement of Highway Trees.
 
6.38 The Service Provider shall replace Highway Trees in accordance with
the Annual Tree Management Programme at a rate of not less than 200 per
year so that 17,500 Highway Trees are replaced by the end of the Term,
such replacement to be in accordance with the highway Tree Replacement
Policy, unless Authority Approval has been obtained or deviation from this
policy.
 
My questions are:
 
1 - Please can you state whether this Performance Requirements is
mandatory or optional.
 
2 - If it is mandatory, will there be any penalties or financial
adjustments for failure to meet this Performance Requirement?
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Rebecca Hammond
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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[3][FOI #503664 email]
 
Is [4][Sheffield City Council request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Sheffield City Council? If so, please contact us using this
form:
[5]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...
 
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
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For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
[7]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...
 
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show quoted sections

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Dear Ms Hammond,
 
Thank you for your recent request for information relating to Streets
Ahead Contract which we received on 30/07/2018.
 
Please find below, Sheffield City Council’s response to your request:
 
The Streets Ahead contract includes a Performance Requirement relating to
the replacement of Highway Trees.
 
6.38 The Service Provider shall replace Highway Trees in accordance with
the Annual Tree Management Programme at a rate of not less than 200 per
year so that 17,500 Highway Trees are replaced by the end of the Term,
such replacement to be in accordance with the highway Tree Replacement
Policy, unless Authority Approval has been obtained or deviation from this
policy.
 
My questions are:
 
1 - Please can you state whether this Performance Requirements is
mandatory or optional.
 
The Performance Requirements are a contractual obligation.
 
2 - If it is mandatory, will there be any penalties or financial
adjustments for failure to meet this Performance Requirement?
 
Service Point deductions could apply if the Performance Requirements are
not met. This would depend on a number of circumstances, all of which are
outlined in the Streets Ahead contract which can be found by the following
link:
[1]http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/content/shef...
 
 
If you have any queries about this response, please do not hesitate to
contact us.
 
If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your
request, you are entitled to have this reviewed.  You can ask for an
internal review by either writing to the above address or by emailing
[2][Sheffield City Council request email].  Internal review requests should be submitted
within 40 working days from the date of this response.
 
If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your internal review, you
can contact the Information Commissioners Office. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 0303
123 1113, or for further details see their website [3]www.ico.org.uk
 
Kind Regards,
 
Sheffield City Council
PO Box 1283
Sheffield, S1 1UJ
Email: [4][Sheffield City Council request email]
P Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to
 
 
 
_____________________________________________
From: Rebecca Hammond
[[5]mailto:[FOI #503664 email]]
Sent: 30 July 2018 10:17
To: FOI
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Streets Ahead Contract - Highway
Tree replacement Performance Requirement
 
 
Dear Sheffield City Council,
 
The Streets Ahead contract includes a Performance Requirement relating to
the replacement of Highway Trees.
 
6.38 The Service Provider shall replace Highway Trees in accordance with
the Annual Tree Management Programme at a rate of not less than 200 per
year so that 17,500 Highway Trees are replaced by the end of the Term,
such replacement to be in accordance with the highway Tree Replacement
Policy, unless Authority Approval has been obtained or deviation from this
policy.
 
My questions are:
 
1 - Please can you state whether this Performance Requirements is
mandatory or optional.
 
2 - If it is mandatory, will there be any penalties or financial
adjustments for failure to meet this Performance Requirement?
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Rebecca Hammond
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[6][FOI #503664 email]
 
Is [7][Sheffield City Council request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Sheffield City Council? If so, please contact us using this
form:
[8]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...
 
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[9]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...
 
For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
[10]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...
 
Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.
 
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
 
 

show quoted sections

Mr Long left an annotation ()

SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL ANNOUNCE THE FELLING OF 17,500 STREET TREES

73.8% of Sheffield's street trees were mature when the £2.2bn "Streets Ahead" highway maintenance project began, in August 2012. On 9th March 2018, in response to a demand by the Information Commissioner, Sheffield City Council (SCC) released a redacted version of the PFI contract for the project (awarded to Amey). It reveals that SCC have set a target for the contractor (Amey) to FELL 200 MATURE STREET TREES PER YEAR with a total of 17,500 TO BE FELLED over a 25 year period (67.6% of mature street trees).

This is what the SCC Cabinet Member for Environment & Streetscene said about the target, when interviewed on BBC Radio Sheffield's Toby Foster at Breakfast programme (a transcript provided by Chris Rust - Co-Chair of Sheffield Tree Action Groups - STAG):
https://sheffieldtreemap.files.wordpress...

You can listen to the interview here:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/groups/172025...

For detail, see:
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/our-regi...

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/roads-...

The contract does permit the contractor to request that fewer trees be felled, and it permits the Council to grant that permission. However, to quote the Council, as reported in The Yorkshire Post (newspaper):

“The spokeswoman said: […] If, at the end of the contract, a smaller number has been replaced, A FINANCIAL ADJUSTMENT WILL BE MADE.

[...]
The council has now confirmed to The Yorkshire Post that NO FORMAL AGREEMENT HAS BEEN MADE TO CHANGE THE CONTRACT and a spokeswoman said THERE IS NO INTENTION TO...".

SOURCE:
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/she...

As the contractor will receive a reduced payment if 17,500 street trees are not felled, and as the contractor makes greater profit by felling mature trees, there is no incentive for the contractor not to fell so many. To make matters worse, SCC rely heavily on the contractor monitoring, auditing and reporting on their own work. See:
https://www.change.org/p/sheffield-city-...

*****
THE CONTRACTOR (AMEY) IS ALSO TASKED WITH HANDLING AND INVESTIGATING ALL ENQUIRIES AND COMPLAINTS ABOUT THEIR OWN WORK, ON BEHALF OF SCC

From Sheffield Tree Action Groups (STAG) Facebook (posted by Cathie Rainbow, on 12th March 2018):

Interesting ! I put in official complaint to Sheffield Council re trees and got response ! Is this normal for Sheffield Council to pass my details to the person I am in fact complaing about ?
I asked if response was from SCC and got this reply.

"Thank you for your email dated 2 March 2018.
I can confirm that I am an Amey employee.

For your information, I can confirm that AMEY HAS DESIGNATED POWERS TO RESPOND ON BEHALF OF THE COUNCIL ON ALL MATTERS PERTAINING TO STREETS AHEAD WORKS, INCLUDING THE HANDLING AND INVESTIGATION OF COMPLAINTS.

All complaints are handled in accordance with the Council’s Customer Complaints procedure and the Council retains an oversight of all Streets Ahead complaints handled, including this one. I can confirm, therefore, that the Council is aware of your complaint and has reviewed this response prior to it being sent to you.

As previously advised, at this stage you do have the right to ask for your complaint to be reviewed by a more senior manager.

To request this please contact me via streetsahead@sheffield.gov.uk or by telephone on (0114) 273 4567, giving details of why you are not satisfied and what further action you want to be taken.

Kind regards

Jeremy Willis

Operations Manager
Customer Services (Amey)

Tel: 0114 273 4567
Email: streetsahead@sheffield.gov.uk "

SOURCE:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/groups/392913...

*****
The above content is copied from the ‘News’ area of the archived Stocksbridge Community Forum Website:

http://stocksbridgecommunity.org.archive...

*****
Readers may also find the following to be of interest:

‘Read Sheffield Council's secret contract policy for felling trees in full’
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/rea...

What follows is the official breakdown of how many trees are to be felled in each part of the city during the £2.2bn highway maintenance contract for the 25yr Streets Ahead project. The figures in brackets are the totals that were to be felled in each part of the city during the first five years of the contract, to 2018 AD (the ‘Core Investment Period’).

South East: 1,370 (445)

South: 2,795 (882)
South West: 3,979 (1,224)

Central: 2,103 (534)
North: 2,420 (715)

North East: 2,939 (763)
East: 1,894 (445)

SOURCE (pages 18 & 19 of the Streets Ahead ‘FIVE YEAR TREE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY’, dated 2012):
https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/content/dam...

Also of interest:

AMEY SELF-MONITORING & AFTERCARE: THE SHEFFIELD TAXPAYER RIP-OFF:
https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress....

SCC & SYP INCOMPETENCE & MISREPRESENTATION:
https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress....

HOW MANY TREES FELLED?:
https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress....

HOW TO RETAIN MEMORIAL TREES:
http://stocksbridgecommunity.org.archive...

TREES: JUGGLING SUSTAINABILITY, RISK & FEAR:
https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress....

Mr Long left an annotation ()

SCC Misuse & ABUSE of The FOI ACT:
https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress....