A regional daily has debunked serious allegations made about protesters fighting against a city council’s tree-felling operation.

The Yorkshire Post has revealed there is no proof backing up claims made in an independent report about the policing of demonstrations against a Sheffield City Council operation which has seen thousands of trees felled.

Allegations that protesters cut workers’ safety ropes and studded nails and glass into trees in attempts to cause serious injury were made public in the report, which was published in June last year.

Since then, Post assistant features editor Chris Burn has been investigating the claims with the help of campaigners, who have provided him with responses to Freedom of Information requests they have made in relation to the claims.

Early in 2018 South Yorkshire Police had started sending dozens of officers to support the council operations in response to growing protests.

Chris told HTFP: “This tactic caused considerable local and national controversy, particularly when arrests were made for what many considered to be questionable reasons – probably most notably when a woman was arrested for blowing a horn at one protest.”

He added: “Of particular interest were emails between the panel’s chair and a press officer for the police commissioner which revealed the police wanted the allegations removed from the report entirely once concerns about their inclusions started being raised. However, the panel chair refused to do this as he said the information had come to them from the police.

“Another FoI separately revealed the allegations had first been raised by contractors in a risk assessment meeting for the operation. Using this new information, I wanted to attempt to answer the question – did the serious criminal behaviour that was alleged actually happen and if so, where and when?”

In May last year Chris won an FoI battle lasting months with the council, after the authority rejected a request to make public its official contractual policy for tree replacement work.

Of his work investigating the allegations against the protesters, said: “I kept an open mind but knew from my coverage of the issue, while it is fair to say that while there had been heated confrontations and angry words exchanged at protests, the idea that there would be deliberate and premeditated attempts to cause serious injury to council workers from a group of protesters described by SYP chief constable as generally ‘decent and law-abiding people’ seemed very surprising.

“I eventually managed to establish that while police had never investigated the claims due to a lack of evidence, the information was included as ‘intelligence’ in a police communications plan and briefed to officers.

“I also established the panel had not checked whether there had been an investigation and what the outcome of that may have been prior to publishing their report last June. [Tree-felling contractor] Amey refused to answer questions about when and where the incidents were supposed to have occurred and if they were reported to the police at the time.

Chris added:  “This was a story that took a considerable amount of work and time to stand up but I am pleased we have been able to start to put the record straight about these serious allegations.”

The report, ordered by South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, found the force’s tactical plan had been “proportionate” in response to the protests.