Mums’ group call for CCTV in Sheffield suburb overrun by crime and anti-social behavior

Mums United in Sharrow say drug dealing, anti-social behavior and violent crime has now got so bad in the area that surveillance is the only solution.

The latest serious incident saw a man armed with a knife on Club Garden Road arrested for affray, but the founder of Mums United, Sahira Irshad, who lives on South View Road, said that was just the tip of the iceberg.

She said: “We have been saying to the TARA and the police we need CCTV or failing that more officers.

“The parents are worried about their kids and we don’t want to go out in the evenings. It is not a safe place to be especially with the nights getting darker.

“We need to tackle these issues but no one wants to know.”

Sahira said when surveillance is mentioned, the council say the problems in the area aren’t bad enough to warrant a permanent CCTV presence.

However, she said many crimes are now going unreported as residents have no confidence the police will take them seriously even if they were.

Set up in 2018, Mums United are a group of around 50 mums from Sharrow who joined forces to provide young people more opportunity.

Sahira said that while progress had been made in recent times, too many parents were allowing their children to ‘run riot’ in the area.

“There are lots of activities and things that are positive but the kids that are disengaged don’t want to come,” said Sahira.

“They are hanging around in packs intimidating local residents and harassing trick or treaters spoiling what could have been a good community event.

“Parents should know where their kids are and who they are with.”

In the absence of support from the police or council, Mums United say they will be going out in the evenings to patrol the area themselves over the next few weeks.

Police said a man arrested on suspicion of affray after reports of a ‘disturbance at a property’ on Club Garden Road on Monday, October 29, remained in custody.