"What it's truly like living in Sheffield's Page Hall"

We are writing in response to the article you published by Steve Jones on 23.10.20 [We ventured into Page Hall with the man trying to improve it – here’s what happened next].

We would like to seize this opportunity to advise Sheffield residents as a whole what life is truly like living in these communities, the false propaganda that has been spread and raise the question as to what the multi millions of pounds of tax payer’s money has been spent on.

Regarding current issues, we are grateful to Sheffield Star for publishing articles that reflect the ongoing problems in our communities such as anti-social behaviour, fly-tipping on the streets and rats.

However, we also have to suffer with noise nuisance, accumulation of household waste in gardens and overcrowding of families.

The articles that you have published and our continual statements to government bodies confirms that this is not a racial attack but an actual fact that the

majority of these problems derive from Roma-Slovakia groups.

As long-term residents in these communities we have been trying for over 15 years to express that these problems are having a significant impact on our human rights and our quality of life. In particular simple things like:

• being able to watch our favourite programmes, without loud music thumping through our homes above normal TV level from as early as 10am on and off to 2am the following day;

• spending time in the garden to read a book, pot plants or watch the children/grandchildren play, without bags of rubbish being thrown over, rats running across or excessive noise;

• Hang out washing or open the windows on a hot sunny day, without having thick, reeking smoke blowing across from burning household waste and often mattresses;

• Large groups of families congregating in front of or on our window sills talking and shouting excessively loud where it feels like you are listening to a live documentary (if you are not familiar with the area, our properties are terraced and our living rooms are front facing the street directly adjoining the public pavement);

• As well as congregating in large groups blocking public walkways, they lean on cars, children scratch their names on them and adults watch their children climb on the bonnet of cars that do not belong to them, often leaving damage;

• You look out of the window from the back and you are faced with dirty nappies, split bags of household waste and other collectable and no longer useful items in their gardens. They then, trespass on your garden and make themselves comfortable with chairs;

• Long-term residents including pensioners have been beaten up when trying to politely confront them, had property damaged and are now living in fear of engaging due to intimidation and retaliation.

Surely, when experiencing these problems day in and day out, it is understandable why we are at the end of our tether and our frustrations are at a high level.

Especially when there is very little compassion from those government bodies who have a responsibility to improve communities. We ask the people of Sheffield how would they deal with these problems if they were living here 24/7 and not just passing through for an hour knowing that they can go back to the solace and enjoyment of their own home?

How would they feel if their mental health decreased due to suffering from anxiety and depression resulting in administering medication? What would they do if they were one of the long-term residents who were brave enough to speak up and raise their concerns to government bodies as a final cry for help, only to be fobbed off, mislead, discouraged and often ignored to the extent where you give up and now live in fear and silence?

Due to government body failings our group was formed in 2018 following numerous years of meetings held with council officials from Environmental Protection Service, South Yorkshire Police, local Councillors (including Mark Jones). We identified constant maladministration, tick box exercises and false promises by these government bodies. In addition, funding equivalent to multi-million pounds of tax payer’s money have been spent in the area to little avail without any accountability.

How can that be acceptable considering how we still have to live?

These government bodies have a responsibility to fairly support communities and Cllrs such as Mark Jones, who we voted in because he (and other Cllrs) promised to improve our area.

However, it is with the upmost disappointment and disbelief that these professional bodies are labelling us long-term residents as racists bigots because we are now challenging their actions and holding them accountable for the ongoing failings.

All of the people who have the power to make decisions on how the funding of multi-millions of pounds are spent in this area do not live in the area. They pass through for an hour at a time, once every few months which is why they can claim that they don’t feel threatened or intimidated.

It had become evidently clear, that those government bodies mentioned are fearful of utilising their powers to act and punish those who fail to adhere to the law, because they feel that the Roma-Slovak community have faced discrimination for many years.

To help our communities, 2018 was when we decided to stand up and hold these services accountable so that we could start to have a quality of life that we are entitled to as we enjoyed 20 years ago.

Page Hall was a community filled with a multitude of diversity and cultures. We had a wonderful community spirit where, as neighbours, we had the upmost respect for each other, valued each other’s privacy and property, we would have meaningful conversations as our kids played together.

We shared food and knew when to give each other space to enjoy the comfort of their homes and gardens. We also gave each other support by picking up bits of shopping for our neighbours when they weren’t well.

If our kids accidently damaged property, as good parents we would hold them accountable, make them apologise and often pay for the damage.

It was exactly this type of community spirit and passion that prevented Sheffield City Council from completing a Compulsory Purchase Order and also, gave the area good publicity for us all coming together to brighten up our area by displaying colourful hanging baskets.

Now let’s move forward to freedom of movement where large groups of families started coming over from different countries.

As the chairperson of this group, a black British woman, of Jamaican decent, it reminded me of the stories that my parents used to tell me when they first came over in the early 60’s.

In summary, they suffered horrible racism, appalling housing and work discrimination.

Despite that they remembered that they came here for a better life, so that their children could receive a good education, employment and better housing. They adjusted to English culture quickly by only having to be educated once in order to learn from their mistakes.

It was this type of understanding and respect that helped to build those stronger multicultural communities which I mentioned earlier.

Unfortunately, unlike the great ethnic groups of the past, the majority of Roma-Slovakia families in the area no longer want to engage with residents or even government bodies to learn from their mistakes.

They choose to ignore British Law and are clearly happy to continue to live in squalor, expecting us to do the same. It is this type of behaviour which has driven out many of the long-term residents who fought so hard to prevent our properties from being demolished.

Furthermore, because of these problems our properties have significantly devalued trapping owner occupiers from moving on.

During a six-week period in 2018 our group members (approximately 15 dedicated residents at that time) started to persistently raise issues to government bodies and collate evidence of the problems we faced.

The tables below confirm that 198 incidents were logged during 10.06.2018 - 30.07.2018 and how those incidents affected our mental health, wellbeing and human rights.

We used that evidence to collectively lodge a formal complaint to Sheffield City Council in August 2018.

Unfortunately, nothing came of that complaint as we were once again duped by false promises and maladministration.

We are all disgusted with Cllr Mark Jones comments in the article where he claims he is trying to solve the problem, but yet falsely blames it on the lack of dialogue between ethnic groups.

The problem is not with the lack of dialogue between ethnic groups but with the named government bodies and Roma-Slovak families. It is not our responsibility as residents to educate and or prosecute them, is that not what the multi-millions of pounds of funding was for?

Evidence does not lie and we have got plenty to back up these facts!

We are sure people of Sheffield would like to know how many of the 450 fixed penalty notices that were issued in Page Hall last year were issued to Roma-Slovak families?

How many abatement notices have been issued to them and more than once?

How many have paid the fines? How many Roma-Slovak families have been fined for not sending their children to school?

How do these stats compare with other ethnic groups and British families across the city?

It appears that Roma-Slovak families are being treated differently as pointed out by Cllr Mark Jones because they have faced years of discrimination so their fines are reduced or written off.

So, does that mean residents across the city are penalised and forced to pay their fines because they live in communities that are not deemed poverty stricken?

Even during the current pandemic, our communities remain in the headlines (I refer to your article on 25.08.20 [Five months in Page Hall, every incident since the beginning of lockdown] which is another reminder that the majority of Roma-Slovak families that they ignore authority and do not

want to listen.

Our mental health and wellbeing are further deteriorating due Covid-19 lockdown because we can’t go to see other families and friends for respite. We must stress that there have been a couple of positive steps forward by Sheffield City Council by employing Wardens to patrol the area (but they have no powers to enforce) and having regular meetings with our group.

Despite the Wardens best attempt to witness the problems and feedback, we have now come full circle by evidencing maladministration, tick box exercises and false promises which has led us to making another collective formal complaint (backed by 40 residents) on 23.08.20.

To date we have had no response so our complaint will now progress to the Local Government Ombudsman.

In addition, we also sent a collective letter to our local Cllrs (Mark Jones being one of them) and MP Gill Furniss on 16.10.20 asking for their support. To date we have had no response.

We now have no alternative but to bring this to the attention of the Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Health Secretary and the Labour Leader (as Sheffield is a Labour run council) in the hope that someone will finally take our concerns, mental health and

wellbeing, seriously and authorise a full in-depth investigation.