Page Hall problems getting worse "every minute," warns community leader

Nasar Raoof, vice chair of Firth Park Neighbourhood Network, told police that Page Hall's problems are "getting worse every minute, every hour of every day".

Mr Raood listed a number of issues, including drugs, gangs, underage prostitution and grooming, brawls, and breaches of covid-19 guidelines, and called for South Yorkshire Police to implement a public spaces protection order.

In his letter submitted to today's meeting of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Comissoner's Public Accountability Board, he wrote: "Every authority has given us promises to help turn Page Hall around and have failed. When will we get a zero tolerance approach to policing and heavy enforcement action against the criminals that are making the lives of our most vulnerable suicidal?"

Tim Forber, Assistant Chief Constable at South Yorkshire Police told the virtual meeting that the northeast neighbourhood policing team who are responsible for policing in Page Hall, will be bolstered by an additional eight PCs and a sargent.

In addition to the four sargents, 20 PCs and 13 PCSOs that police Burngreave, a separate team of officers will be created specifically to police Page Hall.

He added that the "vast majority" of incidents in the area relate to anti-social behaviour, and many are rooted in overcrowding and environmental issues.

ACC Forber added that other issues such as poor quality accommodation, litter and exposed drains led to a "raft" of environmental problems that "engender" anti-social behaviour problems.

He said that within 48 hours of the lockdown being announced in March, every address was leafleted, setting out what the restrictions were, in both English and Slovak.

According to a report presented to the meeting, Page Hall was a key area of demand for the Neighbourhood Policing Teams during the Covid pandemic.

The report states: " Despite some fabulous efforts by police and partners to engage, explain and encourage, some people within Page Hall failed to listen to the advice and continual warnings."

During the pandemic, South Yorkshire Police delivered more than 3,000 translated leaflets outlining government guidelines.

Page Hall has seen the majority of the Covid enforcement penalty notices that were given out in Sheffield - 165 of Sheffield’s 310 fixed penalty notices issued for Covid breaches were issued in the Burngreave ward area which includes Page Hall.

Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner told the virtual meeting: "I've got a lot of sympathy with all those, particularly in this neighbourhood, that is a tightly populated part of Sheffield.

"We know that when you have different communities present in a particular place with different languages, different cultural expectations, issues of language and we know there are likely to be the possibility of issues and we know what some of those issues are.

"Most of this is not directly a policing matter, but there are some policing issues, various other organisations and individuals that I think have been involved."

ACC Forber added: "We have and we will continue to take positive action against people who do not comply with our attempts to educate and explain."

We've worked with Roma students from Hallam University to engage problem addresses and to engage with people who are congregating in the streets. There's been high visibility patrols consistently in that area.”

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