A Green party councillor was among seven people arrested after a standoff with police during the latest protest against tree-felling in Sheffield.



Alison Teal and six others were detained on suspicion of preventing workmen from chopping down a tree in Chippinghouse Road, Nether Edge, at about 9.30am on Monday.

Teal’s partner, Simon Crump, accused the police of “ramping up the situation” and “turning a peaceful demonstration into a mass arrest”.

South Yorkshire police said four women and three men had been arrested on suspicion of preventing lawful work under section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992.

The protest was the latest in an increasingly bitter dispute over the city council’s plans to remove hundreds of roadside trees deemed to be dangerous. A total of 12 people have now been detained by police over tree-felling protests in Sheffield since November.

Crump, an academic who is facing trial after being arrested in November, said: “This was a carefully orchestrated campaign by the police and Amey [the council’s contractors].



“The police are being used as Amey’s private security company. There was at least nine policemen and two meat wagons there at one point. It was a completely peaceful protest but the police definitely ramped up the situation. They turned what was a peaceful protest into a mass arrest.”

Crump, who jokingly referred to himself and Teal as “the Posh and Becks of Sheffield trees”, said the police were called after protesters stepped inside a cordon placed around a tree earmarked for felling.

“Two meat wagons turned up and they were warned and read their rights and eventually they were led away and put into the wagons,” he said. “Police then pretty much blocked off the whole street and as we speak they’re cutting the tree down.”

Before the arrests, Teal posted on social media that there was a “good turnout” of protesters who were “patiently waiting like good British citizens”. She tweeted:

Patiently waiting like good British citizens do. How long before they fell the tree and pedestrians can pass? pic.twitter.com/lY6lDPNK8U — Alison Teal (@alisonclareteal) February 6, 2017

Natalie Bennett, the former Green party leader who is standing in the next Sheffield Central constituency election, said those arrested were “trying to defend their community, their environment, the wellbeing of their neighbours and stand up for democracy”.



She added: “Public opposition to the private company Amey’s tree-felling programme has been strong, determined and widespread.



“Just last week the council debated the third 5,000-plus petition about tree-felling plans, reflecting the strength of feeling in the city.”

Bennett said Amey should “recognise that its reputation is suffering” and give up the private finance initiative (PFI) contract, or Sheffield city council should insist that the contractor “manage the city’s streets for public good not private profit”.



She added: “Sheffield is known as the Green City, but around the world it is increasingly becoming known as the city that cuts down trees.



“This situation cannot go on. There is no public consent for the actions of the for-profit contractor or the council.”



Dave Dillner, the chair of the Sheffield Tree Action Groups, said campaigners were outraged at the arrest of Teal, and said his group had added 22 new members since the news of her detention broke.

“My gut feeling is that the arrests will go on and this will not be the end of it,” he said. “People are really angry because Alison Teal is an extremely hard-working councillor, an extremely popular councillor and a strong supporter of the aims of the Sheffield Tree Action Groups.”

Last month a 70-year-old retired professor and a 72-year-old retired teacher were told they were no longer being prosecuted after being arrested during a protest on Rustlings Road in the city in November.



The former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg described that operation – during which residents were woken at dawn and asked to move their cars – as being more like a well-planned anti-terror raid than a morning of tree maintenance.

The fight for Sheffield’s trees has its roots in a £2bn PFI deal signed by the Labour-run council in 2012. The contractor Amey is tasked with maintaining the city’s 36,000 roadside trees as part of a road maintenance agreement.