Latest shooting ‘not a surprise’ in troubled Sheffield neighbourhood, residents say

The suburb is well known for being home to various social problems, but many houses on nearby roads are well cared for with manicured gardens and tidy drives.

The popular Whiteways Primary School is five minutes walk away while Fir Vale School can be found further down the hill towards Northern General Hospital.

Margate Drive itself, however, stands out from other streets in the area for all the wrong reasons.

Litter is strewn across the street while many gardens contain washing machines and fridge freezers which have to be picked up every Wednesday by the council.

People in the area all described the area being ‘quiet’ until around five years ago, at which point things started to ‘go downhill’.

Residents, all of whom were understandably reluctant to be named, said drug-dealing, drug-taking, fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour were all major problems on the street.

One man who said he had lived in the same flat for 20 years said if he didn’t own his property he would just leave.

The man told The Star he wasn’t aware of the shooting as it happened but that dozens of armed police officers quickly descended on the area afterwards.

“When I moved here it was a beautifully quiet street but in the last few years it has got a lot worse,” he said.

“You see people smoking drugs on the street and people dump cars and the council don’t do anything about it.

“And there are so many school-aged kids around here who run riot. All the litter and rubbish is disgusting.”

Another man who was walking past the cordon with his infant son said he felt drug dealing was the major cause of problems in the area, but that the police ‘didn’t seem interested in doing anything about it’.

A third man walking his dog said it wasn’t the kind of thing he expected to see on his doorstep, but that gangs were a problem in the area and he tried to ‘keep himself to himself’.

And a woman, who tried to make her way through the cordon before being sent back by police, said drug-related incidents were not uncommon in the area, but there had been nothing this serious since another shooting three years ago.

While officers stood guard and detectives carried out their investigations, the street was busy with families and children were playing football on the traffic-less street and grassed areas in front of the flats.

Life was clearly continuing on the street despite the dramatic events of the previous night – or have people just got used to them?