Darnall Carnival 2016

It's that time again! If you would like to get involved in planning the 2016 carnival or volunteering on the day, or if you would like to book a stall, please get in touch with Zahira Naz on 0114 249 0099. We hope the carnival will take place in High Hazels Park on Saturday 3 September.

Meadowhall Proposes New Leisure Hall

The management of Meadowhall are consulting local communities about a proposed refurbishment of the Meadowhall Centre which would create a new Leisure Hall with lots of places to eat and drink and provide up to 1,000 new jobs. To find out more you can go to the public exhibition in Lower Park Lane at Meadowhall between 11am and 6pm on Friday 3 June and 10am and 4pm on Saturday 4 June or click here.

Darnall's Meadowhall Heart Moves to Darnall Primary Care Centre

Laura Hallett's design for Darnall's Heart

Last summer Meadowhall celebrated 25 years of bringing people together by working with artists to create 25 fibreglass heart shaped sculptures, one of which was devoted to images celebrating life in Darnall over the last 200 years. The Darnall Heart, which was designed by artist Laura Hallett, was displayed for many weeks in Meadowhall outside Next, where you may have seen it.

The Darnall Heart in Meadowhall

The Darnall Heart has now been donated by Meadowhall to Darnall Forum and we are pleased to announce that it has been relocated to Darnall Primary Care Centre on Main Road, where it can be viewed in the reception and waiting area. We think this is a fitting home for it.

We would like to thank Meadowhall for the continuing support of our community and for this gift to local residents.

Thank you to the South Yorkshire Police & Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings

The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, gave us a grant which has enabled us to provide training courses and support for local women. Some of the courses included confidence building, and as well there were courses for learning to swim, hair, beauty and nail care. A women's health fair was organised in Tinsley and a 'Have Your Say' event in Darnall. Over 100 women across the Ward benefited from these sessions.

Thankyou to Newground Together!

We should like to say a big “Thankyou!” to Chevin Housing, the local housing association which supports Newground Together. With our local councillors, they funded us to provide our Employment Support Project in Darnall.

Their grants enabled Nazia  Fazil, our employment adviser, to support 18 people into employment in various sectors including retail, call centres, care work, cleaning, lunchtime supervision in schools, warehousing and admin.

Alongside this 31 other people have been supported into training and volunteering to improve their skills, including help with careers’ advice, CV writing, job applications, using email to search for work, interview techniques, covering letters, confidence building, IT and retail skills.

She has also provided in-work support once people started their new jobs.  

Once person said, "Nazia, has been very helpful. I have had a great experience and got a better understanding for when I was looking for work. She helped me to do a CV and apply for jobs. Within a few weeks I managed to get a full time position at a call centre as a customer service advisor. Without her help I wouldn’t have a job today.’’

To find out more Tel. 0114 249 0099 Monday - Wednesday and ask for Nazia.

Taking Pride in Darnall

The ‘Our Place’ project, sponsored by Darnall Environment Forum, aims to make Darnall Ward a place where

·                   by taking a little extra care we can take pride in our outdoors environment

·                   passers-by and visitors to Darnall feel discouraged from littering and fly-tipping

What’s the problem?

Residents have said for a long time that fly tipping is the biggest problem with the environment in Darnall. In 2013 the mass dumping of old refrigerators made headline news on regional TV and in 2014 the clearance of one local site alone cost £17,000.

In 2014-15 the Council attended a total of 846 incidents in Darnall Ward to remove waste from fly tipping. In addition Sheffield Homes attended 1,500 incidents and a smaller housing association attended 25. Using national statistics we estimate that Amey will also have dealt with approximately 780 incidents on highways, footpaths and adjacent land, and that’s not including other agencies who have to deal with regular fly tipping such as the RiverStewardship Company.

How much can we save if we cut the amount of fly tipping?

If all the waste that is fly tipped in Darnall were loaded onto 10 tonne waggons, it would fill about 170 loads. No one keeps accurate figures for what it costs to monitor and remove all of this waste, but figures provided by Sheffield City Council and New Economy in Manchester, which is part of the Northern Powerhouse, confirm that it is more than £200,000 per year.

This means that if we can cut the amount of fly tipping by one-fifth, we can save more than £40,000 that could be spent on other things. According to New Economy, this will also improve life for people in Darnall in lots of other ways which together add up to more than £333,000 per year. This is called ‘the public benefit value’ and it is worked out by adding together the cost of all the things which fly tipping effects.

What happens now?

Local volunteers, our local councillors, the Parks and Countryside Service, Sheffield Homes and many other local agencies are committed to working with us to reach our target and the Council has already committed more than £40,000 this year to getting rid of one of the worst fly-tipping hotspots. We are fundraising right now to help volunteers tackle the problem in new and exciting ways. If you would like to be a part of that, or would like to make a donation, please contact Zahira on 0114 249 0099.

Acknowledgements

Our Place projects were part-funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government as part of an initiative to help communities in England take charge of solving local problems. It was supported by Locality, a charity which supports local community action, and New Economy.