How many times when you’ve been walking the kids to school have you thought “I’ve got to do something about that rubbish…”? Or when you’ve had to take the dog out, have you looked at the grass that’s now 16 inches high and thought “Why isn’t that getting cut?”
The centre of this city is winning awards for its appearance; Page Hall won awards last summer for its hanging baskets; and Burngreave has had praise for its clean and tidy streets. But has all this been at the expense of those little corners that you don’t see from the bus routes, or aren’t visible to those going up to the hospital?
Burngreave’s got to square that circle. With the help of additional money from New Deal, the Council’s Street Force service has been able to employ more street cleaners, and crews to deal with fly-tipping. But New Deal, as we know, won’t be here forever – and people will be living in Burngreave and expecting a clean and tidy environment after New Deal’s gone. So how can we maintain the recent improvements in cleanliness when we’ve not got the extra staff?
With colleagues from Street Force, Green City Action and Sheffield Homes, the Area Panel has been looking at three options. First, we’ve got to make sure that when there is a problem, residents are able to alert the council to that problem. They should know who to contact, what to say, what to expect and when to expect a response. We want to try and ensure that there’s a willingness and a confidence to use the system as it is. Secondly, we want to make sure that the organisations who provide services for environmental improvements do so in line with local needs and priorities. But this can’t happen unless they know what residents want. And that comes down to communication again. Thirdly, we want to make sure that self-help is possible. Not to replace what the Council or others should be doing anyway in Burngreave – but to add to it. Not just to do one high profile event – like in the past with sweeping the front of your house on Scott Road one Sunday… But regularly doing a tiny little bit extra, with others of a like mind.
We’ve come up with the idea of Street Champions – that is one resident on each street who will be able to liaise with the Council and have the problem dealt with in the most effective way.
We talked about these ideas with two groups of residents last month, from six small areas around Burngreave, Firshill and Fir Vale. We asked people whether they would consider becoming a ‘street champion’ for one year to see whether this collaboration between residents and workers in the area can be beneficial. People were invited if they were regularly in contact with the Area Panel, or their local tenants’ or residents’ associations, or had talked about similar things to the neighbourhood wardens, or indeed whether they were ‘frequent callers’ to Council services. When the scheme is launched in the new year, every street champion will have a little handbook with the right phone numbers for the right people; their own reference number for contacting services; and a guide about who can arrange any ‘selfhelp’ events.