'I find knives while litter picking,' says councillor of Sheffield ward in wake of Burngreave stabbing
“You don’t even need to buy a knife from a shop - you can just grab one off the pavement”
A councillor in a Sheffield neighbourhood where a man was stabbed this week says he routinely find knives while litter picking.
A man was hospitalised following an incident on Earsham Street, Burngreave, on Monday night, with two arrested on suspicion of inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Burngreave ward councillor Mustafa Ahmed, for the Green Party, has called for a crackdown on “heartbreaking” knife crime, claiming he regularly finds discarded knives in fly-tipped waste.
The councillor, who was elected in May, has shared photos of a serrated bread knife he found on Ellesmere Green - just metres from Earsham Street, Burngreave- on July 2, and another he found on Wensley Street on June 24.
“For one of them, I called the police who asked me to put it in a sharps bin,” said Mr Ahmed. “For the other, I called the council who sent a street team to collect it.
“You don’t even need to buy a knife from a shop - you can just grab one off the pavement.
“What I want to say is that knife crime is something that happens every month in Burngreave and Page Hall.
“It’s heartbreaking and it needs to be taken seriously.”
It comes after an incident on May 19, when a man was stabbed on Firth Park Road, Page Hall, which is also in Burngreave ward. Three people were arrested.
Soon after, South Yorkshire Police’s Inspector Alec Gibbons, of Sheffield North East neighbourhood policing team, said he was aware there is “more to be done” in Page Hall and that crime fighting work takes place every day.
Mr Ahmed said he believed the bread knife found in Ellesmere Park is connected to an encampment of rough sleepers there, which he claims is responsible for violence and anti-social behaviour in the area.
The Star visted the park on May 20, and the encampment was still there as of another visit on July 7.
“No action has been taken by the police or the council,” said Mr Ahmed.
“I am contacting the police all the time. I brought Ajman Ali [Sheffield’s Executive Director of Neighbourhood Services] to the park on July 6, probably at the same time as the stabbing on Earsham Street.
“Enough is enough, and yet it happens again and again.”
Over the weekend, Mr Ahmed hit out at a Reform councillor’s claims he wants to see ex-military deployed to Page Hall as a response to anti-social behaviour, saying: “Burngreave does not need soldiers on its streets. It needs the same level of investment, services and attention that every other part of our city rightly expects.”
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