Anger after Sheffield park and lake are 'trashed after all-night partying'

“Mounds of rubbish, loud music until the early hours, shouting, scuffles, broken glass strewn around, wildlife threatened by trash dumped in a lake and kids kept awake.”

Tuesday, 15th June 2021, 2:06 pm

That’s how one resident – Richard Ward – described a night of disturbance at a Sheffield park after hundreds of people flocked there.

Crookes Valley Park was trashed by party goers who then left volunteers from Harcourt Road and other surrounding streets to clean up piles of rubbish the next day.

Mr Ward and several other people contacted the media to highlight the damage.

Trash at the park.
Trash at the park.

Mr Ward said: “On Sunday there was the combination of the football and it being a really lovely day so there were a lot of people in the park until late, some were still arriving at 11pm with shouting, yelling and music being played until 5am.

“There’s no toilet so people use the bushes behind the houses on Harcourt Road. The sheer quantity of rubbish and broken glass was just ridiculous and I have never seen so much litter thrown in the lake.

“We want to see some proactive work from the council and the police because this is not unusual.”

Another resident added: “We are not happy about being kept awake most of the night, often until 5am to 6am, by the partying in the park. It’s been most nights since the weather improved.”


Local councillor Angela Argenzio said people needed to be reminded to act responsibly.

“We want people to have fun but at the same time they need to be considerate of people who live in the area around our parks and to leave the green spaces clean.

“We need more and larger bins but people must also take their rubbish home if the bins are full.

“Things have improved in other parks when more signs, bins and more patrols have been put in place, so we need to ensure that we do the same all around the city.

Litter at the park.

“We need to continue to put out positive messaging about our responsibility towards each other, most people want to do the right thing, we just need to remind them.”

Swimmers at Crookes Valley Park (pic: Emma Wass)