Newcastle Councillor Steven Rutherford Faces Questions Over Tree Claims

Thousands of people have been drawn into a political row over a supposed Newcastle cycle lane that campaigners claimed could see dozens of mature trees felled.

Yellow ribbons have been tied around trees on Stamfordham Road. A petition has attracted thousands of signatures. Residents have been warned about the potential loss of green space, more tarmac and worsening congestion.

But Newcastle City Council has now said the central claim behind the controversy is wrong.

That raises a bigger question than whether Newcastle needs another cycle lane. What standard of evidence should residents expect from an elected councillor before they launch a petition capable of causing considerable concern in their own community?

The controversy was first reported as unverified by Newcastle Daily yesterday, after we examined claims surrounding a petition started by Reform UK councillor Steven Rutherford, who represents Denton and Westerhope.

At the time, publicly available evidence confirming that nearly 40 mature trees were earmarked for removal could not be identified.

Today, the position has become considerably clearer.

Council says the tree claim is wrong.

Newcastle City Council has directly denied that it plans to install a Stamfordham Road cycle lane involving the removal of trees.

Owen Burbidge, the Liberal Democrat cabinet member responsible for active and public transport, said yellow ribbons had been attached to trees because of a "mistaken belief" that they were due to be felled.

"This is not correct," he said.

Burbidge added that the current administration has no plans for a Stamfordham Road cycle lane that would involve removing trees and said future transport initiatives would involve genuine consultation with residents.

The statement matters because the threatened trees are not some minor detail of the campaign.

They are at its emotional heart.

A warning that dozens of mature trees could disappear is naturally going to worry people. Add yellow ribbons to those trees and the message becomes even more powerful.

But if the council says those trees are not being removed for the claimed cycle lane, how did the controversy reach this point?

What did the councillor verify first?

Rutherford has described opposition to the supposed plans as "overwhelming" and started the petition warning about the impact on local families.

The petition itself is real. The people signing it are real. Concerns about congestion and development in western Newcastle are also very real.

The question is what evidence existed for the specific claim around which people were being mobilised.

Newcastle Daily raised that problem yesterday when we reported that the alleged removal of nearly 40 mature trees could not be verified through publicly available council documents.

Now the council itself has said the belief that the trees are going to be felled for a cycle lane is mistaken.

That does not prove that Rutherford deliberately misled anybody, nor does it establish why the petition was launched. There could have been conversations, earlier ideas or information supplied to councillors that have not been made public.

If that evidence exists, Rutherford should publish it.

If it does not, residents are entitled to ask why an elected representative launched such a prominent campaign before establishing whether its central premise was correct.

Should councillors be held to a higher standard?

This is where the story becomes about more than Stamfordham Road.

Rutherford is not simply a political activist posting speculation on social media. He is an elected member of Newcastle City Council and one of three Reform UK representatives for Denton and Westerhope. The council's own directory confirms his position.

Public office carries influence.

When a councillor tells residents that something may threaten their neighbourhood, people have reasonable grounds to give that warning greater weight than an anonymous Facebook post.

That makes verification more important, not less.

Councillors should challenge administrations. They should investigate rumours, demand documents, oppose bad schemes and organise residents when necessary. Newcastle's dramatically changed political landscape should produce stronger scrutiny of those making decisions.

But scrutiny has to work both ways.

If councillors demand evidence and transparency from the council, residents should be entitled to demand exactly the same from their councillors.

The genuine concerns risk getting lost.

There is an unfortunate consequence to controversies like this.

Stamfordham Road does have genuine transport problems.

Residents are concerned about congestion, the impact of extensive housebuilding and whether infrastructure has kept pace with development. There are also perfectly reasonable arguments about where cycle routes should go and whether Newcastle's transport spending reflects residents' priorities.

Stamfordham Road is already part of the city's transport network, including an existing section of bus lane listed by the council.

Those issues deserve serious political attention.

But when debate becomes dominated by saving trees from a scheme the council says it is not proposing, genuine problems risk becoming secondary to a manufactured controversy.

The evidence should now be published.

There is an easy way to settle this.

If Rutherford or other councillors possess drawings, emails, briefings or other evidence showing that a Stamfordham Road cycle lane involving the removal of around 30 to 40 trees was genuinely being proposed, they should put that evidence into the public domain where possible.

It would demonstrate exactly where the claims originated and allow residents to make up their own minds.

If no such evidence exists, there is a different question to answer.

Why did an elected councillor start a petition capable of alarming thousands of residents before the claim at the centre of it had been properly verified?

Newcastle Daily reported yesterday that the tree-removal claim could not be substantiated from the publicly available evidence.

Newcastle City Council has gone further and said it is wrong.

Political parties will always disagree. Councillors will campaign and administrations will be challenged. That is democracy.

But elected office should come with a higher standard than simply repeating something because it generates anger.

Have your say.

Should We Expect More From Our Elected Councillors?