An independent report by law firm VWV investigated formal complaints made by four residents who faced injunction proceedings for their part in protests to stop the felling of thousands of street trees. Another nine protesters gave undertakings to the council as a result of being targeted for legal action.
The report said that all the protests and campaigning activity were legal.
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A meeting of the council’s finance and performance policy committee earlier this month heard from chief operating officer Claire Taylor that all the recommendations and actions proposed by the VWV report have been fully accepted.
Committee chair Coun Zahira Naz said: “Before we begin discussing the report formally, I want to acknowledge the seriousness of what we are about to consider.
“This investigation lays bare a difficult and painful chapter in the council’s recent history. It confirms what many residents have long felt during the street trees dispute, that mistakes were made that had a lasting impact on individuals and trust in this council.
“The way legal action was taken and how complaints were handled did not meet the standards that the public rightly expect from public bodies. As chair of the finance committee, I recognise that this is not just about historic decisions, it’s also about how we manage risk, ensure oversight and build the culture of transparency and accountability moving forward.
“The reputational, financial and human cost of poor decision-making is clear. This report makes it clear that simply an apology is not enough – the apology must be sincere, personal and followed by meaningful change.”
Coun Naz thanked the complainants who pursued the issue “with courage and persistence” and thanked VWV for their “clear and frank” findings.
She added: “It is now on us as councillors, officers and leaders to demonstrate that we listened, understood and are committed to doing better.”
Coun Naz welcomed the report’s findings and said that a serious discussion must take place to strengthen the council and rebuild public confidence.
The issue will also be discussed by the strategy and resources committee in September. It will hear an update on the apology-making process.
The report said that the council decided in 2017 to threaten protesters they considered “the main protagonists” with high court action unless they gave wide-ranging undertakings that they would not take part in direct action to stop the tree-felling programme.
The four complained in 2021 when questions to the council revealed further information.
The report said that the council made little response, other than to decide the complaints would be dealt with by Sir Mark Lowcock’s inquiry into the street tree scandal.
However, the inquiry team said that it lay outside the scope of what they were investigating.
The VWV report concluded the council must “issue full and complete apologies to each of the complainants from the chief executive of the council. This will need to incorporate the apologies post Lowcock Inquiry, that had not been accepted by the complainants and in accordance with the perimeters set within the strategy and resources committee in respect of apologies.
“In addition these apologies must also cover the issues identified in this report around decision making, heavy handedness and failure to deal with the complaints in an appropriate way.
“These apologies must reflect the individual complainants and their part in the many years of this dispute where they have persisted for the ‘right’ thing to be done, despite the obstacles placed in their way by the council.”
It said the council must also “consider how to demonstrate, in an open and transparent way, acceptance, compliance and accountability of these recommendations”.
The report concluded that legal staff must be “the voice of constructive challenge and role models of good governance – specifically in the context of this investigation to raise and escalate poor/ill-conceived instructions requiring the taking of legal action”.