Elderly Sheffield residents suffering from anti-social behaviour: “We shouldn’t have to live in this situation”
Residents in the east of Sheffield have been complaining about anti-social behaviour in their area including the danger caused by off-road bikes and quad bikes.
An Arbourthorne resident told a public meeting held by Sheffield City Council: “We live on Errington Crescent and we have a lot of anti-social behaviour and we have a lot of rubbish, we have the bikes going up and down and we’ve got a lot of damage from walls from the bricks being taken off.
“We have to move a lot of rubble and everything else. These two ladies every morning on ours move rubbish, they do it because we want a tidy area to live in. Yes, fair enough, will someone come round and do it but we want somewhere that’s tidy, we want somewhere that’s clean.
“So if it means us picking a bit of rubbish up, us moving the bricks because we don’t want them thrown at the windows, which we’ve had. In the three years I’ve lived there we’ve had to have our windows to the communal doors changed so many times.”
The residents of her block are elderly and one is almost 90, she said, adding: “We shouldn’t have to live in this situation”.
“It’s people telling their children pick that rubbish up and we can’t do that, because if we tell them to pick that rubbish up the abuse that we get back is unbelievable, so it’s easier for us to do it.”
Issues
The discussion took place at a meeting of Sheffield City Council’s East LAC (local area committee).
The council’s seven LACs each cover four wards of the council and allow members of the public to raise issues with ward councillors. The East LAC covers Darnall, Manor Castle, Park and Arbourthorne and Richmond wards.
Wednesday’s meeting looked at issues around anti-social behaviour. It involved representatives of Sanctuary Housing Association. The not-for-profit housing and care provider has been targeted by anti-social behaviour in the area.
People attending the meeting divided up into workshops for discussions.
The spokesman for one group reported back: “It probably won’t be a surprise for everybody that the main issue people raised with us is the issue of the off-road bikes – the damage that they cause to the grass and the risk that they pose to people as they move about, the intimidation and the general frustration around the bikes.”
Someone spoke about Sanctuary Housing having to install hard landscaping to stop bikes and problems with non-residents getting into communal areas and causing anti-social behaviour. Possible solutions discussed included having youth workers based in the area.
Dangerous
Meeting chair and Darnall ward councillor Mary Lea said: “Off-road bikes are a big problem, it’s the same in a number of communities. They are quite dangerous, not just for themselves but for other people.
“We have cars racing around on some roads, kids breaking into Sanctuary Housing buildings, dogs running around the streets, fouling, and fly tipping.”
Council community services manager Huda Ahmed stressed: “People have said we’ve done this before and nothing has happened. We will do our very, very best to make sure that things happen for you.”
She said that the issues discussed will be reported to the relevant authorities and will be chased up regularly for progress to be made on them.