Sheffield suburb Firth Park uses council £500,000 funding pot to tackle litter, fly-tipping and rats

One area that has benefited is Firth Park in the north of the city.

Firth Park ward Labour councillor Fran Belbin said: “When we had the budget-setting back in March, there was a little bit of money we had to play with.

“All three parties put in ideas what to do with it and the Labour Party one went through including £500,000.

“All the volunteer litter pickers who have been doing their bit have been pushing to do more with the council.

“There are 4,000 litter pickers on the Sheffield Facebook group – if you’re a councillor, you will be working with them.”

One problem targeted in her ward is a recycling area in a car park next to Firth Park.

“It was attracting masses of fly tipping. People were putting stuff in the wrong recycling bins, they were overflowing and there was rubbish all around them.

“It really blights areas. You can’t underestimate how much it afects decline if there are piles of rubbish.

“People have been cooped up in their homes for long enough – they need to get out and about in their area and you want it nice and looking good.”

She said that the area was cleared up, the glass recycling bin was taken away because there was a lot of smashed glass and warning signs were put up, telling people that a camera monitoring the area would catch fly tippers.

‘You’d see dead rats in the street’

Parks and Amey waste contractors also kept an eye on the area and reported anything wrong.

Coun Belbin explained that the funding is a one-time opportunity only but she’d like to see it continue.

“It’s a one-off. It shows what a difference you can make with £500,000 that is sustainable.

“Part of it paid for a project officer to work with litter-picking groups. We worked to make a difference to them.

“We wanted to find out what will make it easier, working in partnership with the council. It is a 12-month role but the aim is for a bit more sustainability.

“The other side came from an education campaign, especially in areas like this where we’re just coming across people feeling that areas are declining and being neglected.

“Fly-tipping was attracting rats – you’d see dead rats in the street.”

Coun Belbin said that rat infestations were a major concern for people in the ward.

‘Because of Covid, street cleaning was not as efficient’

She joked: “If I’d known how much time I would spend talking about rats I wouldn’t have done it (become a councillor)! I can’t stand the things.”

“Because of Covid, street cleaning was not as efficient because of a lack of staff. We had quite a bit of catching up to do with work that was missed.

“We said, let’s get on top of it to do this extra bit of work and do the streets afresh. It’s not got to slip back again.”

Coun Belbin said that some of the money was spent on telling people about bulky waste collections – these are free to council tenants and some people in other social housing.

Anyone else can pay to have up to 12 bulky items taken away.

For details, go to www.sheffield.gov.uk/bins-recycling-services

Coun Belbin said: “In Firth Park, there was some education about rats and what attracts rats and just letting people know about the pest control service, which is free to people on benefits.

“We combined that with a bit of enforcement, if people have been told and are not listening.”

She praised the tenants’ and residents’ associations for the Brushes, Stubbin and Flower estates, who worked hard to hand out and collect up survey forms asking about rat infestations and giving people advice on what to do.

The funding paid for some people in the area who did not qualify for free pest control to use the service.

She said that work has also been done on the council website to make it easier for people to report problems.

Coun Belbin said the project showed the importance of partnership between the council, community groups, litter pickers, tenants’ organisations and local businesses.

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