'We are losing a generation' – early intervention call for troubled Sheffield neighbourhood

A spate of shootings - 18 at the latest count - have seen a small stretch of the busy Sheffield road and the narrow terraced streets which surrounds it thrust into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

“What is it like for families who have children,” worried Abdul.

“How safe is it for them with police up and down the street all the time?

“People are already living with the isolation and fear of the pandemic and things like this really shake you up. It is alarming.”

It was just opposite Abdul’s shop that a 24-year-old man was shot on Farrar Road last week, while on nearby Harwell Road, another young man was shot in the foot just a few weeks prior.

And perhaps most worrying of all, in July, a series of shootings led to a dog being seriously injured before it was put down by police outside a local takeaway.

The tough, inner-city area is not unaccustomed to violence, but the escalation in criminality it has seen this year has come as a shock to many in the tight-knit community.

Before the recent shootings, a series of stabbings led local community group Mums United to organise a peace walk before the coronavirus lockdown began in March.

Then, Hardy’s Gunsmiths on nearby Alderson Road was raided by burglars in April, with several of the stolen weapons thought to have been used in the recent incidents.

The sustained level of violence has led to a renewed focus on the area, which has for the moment overtaken Arbourthorne and Burngreave as the gun crime capital of Sheffield.

Police are now a much more common sight on the neighbourhood’s streets, with even mounted officers patrolling earlier this week.

But while police can disrupt criminal activity with arrests, two community activists say much earlier intervention is needed if the ‘conveyor belt’ of young men, drugs and violence is to be stopped.

Nether Edge and Sharrow Councillor Jim Steinke lives on Sitwell Road on the edge of Mount Pleasant Park and is a passionate defender of the area he has called his home for the past 15 years.

He is on record as saying the area remains ‘a great place to live’ despite recent events, with the ward’s strength coming from its ethnic, social and economic diversity, he says, lending the area a vibrancy not found in other areas of the city.

That is not to say recent incidents have not concerned him, however, and he has been at the forefront of efforts along with the police and other community leaders to help combat the recent surge of violence.

But he is also conscious that there is a limit to what police can do, and says that keeping kids out of the criminal justice system in the first place should be the main aim of any anti-violence strategy.

“The police can arrest people after things happen but we need to get to the stage before that and to stop people getting a criminal record,” he says.

“Most of it is small scale dealing by inexperienced people who don’t know what they are doing. But the gun shop raid has created ‘boys with toys’ situation.

“Some people do feel frightened but you hear people talking about ‘no go zones’ in parts of Sheffield. I have worked with people who have come from war zones and we don’t have anything like that.”

A new Imam at the local mosque who is committed to persuading families not to tolerate their sons’ criminality will help, he says, although the pain and guilt parents from any community would feel informing on their own children should not be underestimated.

But he remains hopeful that the recent spate of violence is more driven by the particular set of personalities in the area at the moment, and once they are dealt with the problem will die down.

Sahira Irshad, however, from Mums United, a community group set up to provide alternatives to young people at risk of becoming involved in gang violence, believes the problems are more deep-rooted than that.

“It is frustrating when people say it is targeted and once we get the people responsible it will go away - I don’t think it will,” said Sahira.

“It is not just a few people - it is so deeply embedded in our communities.

“The people involved are young boys in their late teens or early 20s - but 10, 11 and 12-year-olds are now being groomed into this lifestyle. They see dealing in their own homes or by their cousins and it becomes normalised.”

Sahira has herself had a brick put through one of her front windows as a result of her work with the community, and is also sometimes abused when she goes to the local shops, but says she won’t let this deter her.

“The brick was because people don’t like hearing the truth,” she said.

“Each time I go into Tesco I get abused by people who say I am bringing trouble to the area but I have never said it is any particular person - I just want to protect my kids.”

Like Councillor Steinke, Sahira believes early intervention is the only way to break the cycle of violence, as younger and younger boys are introduced to the lure of easy money by exploitative adults, something that led her and a number of other parents to form Mums United two years ago.

They have since set up three groups in Landsdowne, Sharrow and Meersbrook with a focus on preventing young and impressionable local children going down the wrong path.

“We need to acknowledge this is a problem that is going to be around for a while until we get to the root causes of it and invest in more prevention work,” said Sahira.

“Enforcement work is really important and welcome, but there are a lot of boys around here who are at the cusp of entering that gang lifestyle and they are vulnerable.

“We have a generation that is being lost.”

Thank you to all who support local journalism with a digital or print subscription to The Star. The events of 2020 mean trusted, local journalism is more reliant than ever on your support. We couldn't do it without you. Subscribe here www.thestar.co.uk/subscriptions so we can keep campaigning on your behalf. Stay safe.