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.