Lansdowne Flats: Councillor promises better days soon for Sheffield estate beset with rats and social problems

The communal bins off Club Street are in the worst shape. They are more like open topped heaps, spilling rubbish out to every corner of the estate. The sheds behind them are meant for recycling but the stickers saying what goes where are so faded residents feel powerless to even bother.

Wrappers and half eaten food are strewn across the car park and end up in the bushes, and there are visible rat holes running along the foot of every building.

“You could do a litter pick here every weekend and it would be like that again the week after,” said Sharrow councillor Peter Garbutt [Green party] on a visit to the estate with The Star.

“Rats are a big problem lately. There are deficiencies in the bins with lids missing, but there’s also the fact so many people are dropping chips and half eaten food around,” he said.

Against this backdrop, in the past year, Lansdowne has been a meeting spot for drug deals, all arranged, paid up and hidden in the light-less brick staircases. At night, fireworks are occasionally set off from balconies and people shout at each other in the courtyards.

In August last year, dozens of residents woke to the sound of men screaming and gunshots nearby, but police never uncovered what happened.

All this led to a breaking point in October, when resident groups demanded a walk around the estate with councillors and police to vent their frustrations. Soon after, councillor Nighat Basharat publicly stated residents felt they weren’t being listened to and didn't “feel safe” in their homes. From rampant litter, embedded crime and flaring anti-social behaviour, it’s a tall order of issues for Sheffield to solve.

Now, Councillor Garbutt says the Lansdowne Flats are at the centre of a “massive piece of work” by the council that has been months in the making, and is asking residents to be patient while the loops of it are tied together.

"I’ll say it again, Lansdowne is a priority at the moment,” said Coun Garbutt. “We held up our hands in October and realised we hadn’t paid as much attention as we should have.

“It is a priority that the quality of life for the people on Lansdowne is improved.”

Coun Garbutt ventured a number of ways the ‘huge piece of work’ was coming together. He assures there have been a “considerable number” of arrests to tackle drug dealing in recent months.

Reportedly, all repairs that needed addressing in October – mainly broken doors – have now been fixed. Wider plans now include working with Veolia to create new bin spaces, working with police to possibly open a permanent base on site, installing CCTV, holding bike repair sessions to engage young people, all the way to reaching out to vulnerable people in entrenched homes.

Of course, how much of this can ever be funded by cash-strapped Sheffield City Council is unclear – at least until the budget in March.

“But if you look at what this place looks like, it’s really beautiful,” said Coun Garbutt. “There are park areas, trees, shrubbery, a children’s play area – it’s all here, even if it needs some care.”