Week of action to help reduce crime in Sheffield suburb

Sharrow Community Forum will hold a series of events and talks throughout next week in the run up to the Sharrow Lantern Festival, which will be held on Sunday, April 7.

And South Yorkshire Police said it would increase patrols, carry out stop and searches as well as ‘enforcement action’ throughout the week.

Jonathan Roberts, chief executive officer at Sharrow Community Forum, said: “It's a lot of work that we are doing together with the police and other statutory services to get people engaged in activities.

“There are local organisations that obviously want to advertise what they are doing but the response we’ve had has been great. I think it’s great that everyone has wanted to get involved.”

The week comes after a number of incidents in Sharrow and residents voicing fears about rising crime and antisocial behaviour.

It was at the centre of a night of mayhem in June when a man suffered a serious facial injury after reportedly being hit by an axe in Paddy Power bookmakers on London Road.

Gunshots were then fired at a house on Wostenholm Road just three hours later.

Then in September, a man in his 30s was taken to hospital after he was found with gunshot injuries on the same road.

Sgt Ross Greenwood, of the Sharrow and Abbeydale policing team, said: “There will be increased patrols in targeted areas as a result of concerns from police working with partners such as youth offending, parking services at Sheffield Council and there will be a number of drop-in events for people to get involved with.

“We’re seeing a lot of improvements in the area. I have been here since January and a lot has changed. We are getting a huge variety of issues from parking on London Road through to antisocial behaviour along the London Road corridor.

“We want people to get involved. If you see us come and speak to us, if you’ve got concerns come and speak to us, the more people get involved the better it will be.”

Sessions planned include a dance performance on Tuesday, a guns and knives talk on Wednesday and a drugs awareness event aimed at parents on Thursday.

The week of action will come to an end with the 16th annual Sharrow Lantern Festival on Sunday.

It begins in Mount Pleasant Park at 7.30pm, ready for the parade which starts at 8pm and finishes in the General Cemetery at 9pm.

For more information or to get involved in the week of action call Sharrow Community Forum on 0114 2508384.