Broomhall: Council house in Sheffield neighbourhood to be used by police and council as 'community hub'

Based at 107 Exeter Place, Broomhall, the hub opened on Wednesday, May 11 and will be used primarily by the area’s neighbourhood policing team and Sheffield City Council (SCC).

Inspector Adam Wood has been leading the work around the hub, and says he hopes an increased presence of both police and council staff in the area will help to build up trust between residents and the two agencies.

“The idea behind that is so really we can have that presence; so people will more likely want to build that trust over time, speaking to us, breaking down those barriers between police and council so people feel more confident in coming to us informally; have a chat or speak to us or attend one of our drop-in sessions; joint drop-in sessions with police and council,” Insp Wood said.

He added: “The Broomhall neighbourhood policing team will ideally be using it every time they’re on duty. Going down there, having a presence down there, but also using it as a base; organising appointments, seeing people, dealing with local policing matters.”

“They will also working with local council who will want to use it for housing appointments; getting tenants down to speak about their local issues too,” he added.

Insp Wood said residents can expect to see police officers using the hub as a base, both during the day and at night, for the next six months, after which time South Yorkshire Police will consult with residents to see whether it has been of benefit to the community.

When asked why they chose to open a community hub in Broomhall, Insp Wood continued: “It’s a broad section of lots of cultures within Broomhall including Somalian, Eritrean, Iranian, Albanian. And traditionally, I suppose, some of those minority communities probably don’t have the same level of trust within the police and statutory agencies in general so I suppose it’s really good to have that greater presence within Broomhall just to be able to engage more and break down some of those barriers in terms of perceptions of police and partners.”

Insp Wood was keen to state that the hub is not a police house, similar to the kind introduced in Page Hall in October 2020 when officers moved into the area in a bid to curb anti-social behaviour in October 2020. An empty house in the area was subsequently used as a ‘community house’ by police and SCC.

He did say it was hoped the increased presence from both police and SCC would help to reduce crime levels in the area, which he described as being ‘similar to anywhere else’.

Insp Wood added that anti-social behaviour, drug misuse and low-level drug dealing present the biggest problems in the area; and said the existing neighbourhood policing team are already working to tackle such issues through proactive policing, warrants and emergency closure orders.

Four emergency closure orders have been used to target properties associated with drug misuse and drug dealing in Broomhall in recent months, said Insp Wood.

Sahira Irshad is a trustee chairperson of Sheffield-based campaign group Mums United which tackles youth violence and drugs.

She welcomed the addition of the community hub, but said she believed community engagement work would need to be handled sensitively.

“It’s something that is positive, providing they’re working with grassroots community groups in the area. They also need to be careful not to further alienate and margnialise minority groups,” said Sahira.

Sahira also suggested that people in the community could be deterred from being seen at the community hub for fear of ‘reprisals or being called a snitch’ and suggested using an existing community building instead could help to allay any concerns around this.