People living in the Eastwood area of Rotherham 'scared to leave their homes at night'
Residents in the community insist several issues are 'getting worse' there
We're hearing that everyday life in the Eastwood area of Rotherham has become a 'constant nightmare'.
People living there say they're fed up with being intimidated by gangs, while members of the community fear drug dealing is on the rise.
John moved to Eastwood five years ago and has had to deal with several power cuts at his home recently due to illegal cannabis farms at nearby properties.
He's also had enough of another issue taking place across the community as well:
"Fly tipping has been going on ever since I've been here. It's really bad.
"Sometimes a landlord will clear a house out and dump everything in the street.
"Other times, stuff will get chucked into the local park just down the road."
John went on to say that the ongoing issues in the community are getting worse all the time:
"We've got gangs at night time and drug dealers all over the place. It seems to be never ending. There's nobody here to take responsibility and put a stop to this.
"Nobody goes out at night because of how intimidating it is. When the sun goes down, you've got cars screeching up and down the estate almost every night.
"It gets you so down and depressed when it's happening all the time. It's a constant nightmare.
"You walk out of your house to the nearest supermarket and you're constantly looking at new bits of dumped furniture and litter. Bins are scattered all over the place.
"I only think things are going to get worse around here, unless South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Council do more about all of this."
In response to this, we approached both South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Council for a statement.
Sergeant Matt Smith of the Safer Neighbourhoods Team in Rotherham, said:
"Issues including anti-social behaviour and related crime can cause understandable concern in the communities we serve, and we work closely with our partners to tackle it including on our successful Operation Duxford series where we bolster our existing district resources with specialist teams from across the force for a dedicated day of action.
"The last Operation Duxford (Wednesday 2 February) saw us work with partners to engage directly with people as well as making arrests for a variety of offences and other work to tackle criminality.
"We are aware of the reported illegal cannabis farms and possible links to power cuts and formed a team of officers to investigate the problem. Since 1 October 2021 we have dismantled 61 suspected cannabis cultivations in Rotherham and this action is having a direct impact with no reported power cuts in the Eastwood area so far this year linked to this criminality.
"A lot of the reported problems around anti-social behaviour were linked to cannabis farms and with many of them dismantled we are not aware of additional issues developing in the Eastwood area but I would urge anyone suffering such issues to report it to us so we can continue to take action."
Rotherham Council’s Assistant Director for Community Safety, Tom Smith, said:
“Both the Council and South Yorkshire Police have been working closely with the National Power Grid to address issues around power cuts which may have been caused by illegal drug farms. We are not aware of any further outages since December 2021.
“The Council are continuing to monitor reports of fly tipping across the borough; however, we have not seen any information to indicate an increase of fly tipping in this area but will investigate any reported incidents to ensure communities are kept clean and welcoming. Residents can also help by reporting fly tipping through the Council’s online webform.
“We are also not aware of any recent reports of increased anti-social behaviour, however, we urge anyone who is affected by this kind of behaviour, including verbal abuse, to report it to the Police by calling 101. Through the actions of the Council, South Yorkshire Police, and partners the recorded cases of anti-social behaviour have decreased within the area.”