Hexthorpe: Facing Fly-Tipping Through Art and Community
Hexthorpe, in Doncaster, is a neighbourhood with a remarkable history and unique charm. Its terrace houses, once home to miners, reflect an architectural heritage that still shapes the area’s character. It is also where the world-famous Flying Scotsman train was built. With the River Don flowing past and a railway station offering direct links to London, Manchester, and cities across the country, Hexthorpe enjoys an enviable location.
Beyond its history and geography, Hexthorpe is a multicultural community where residents from Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America, North America, and England live side by side. This diversity gives the neighbourhood colour, richness, and vibrancy. Yet, alongside its beauty and energy, Hexthorpe has faced a persistent challenge: the problem of fly-tipping.
Over the past five years, local residents and organisations have been exploring ways to address this issue. The Arts and Culture Community Centre, based in Hexthorpe, has taken an innovative approach: using art as a tool to inspire environmental awareness and community pride. Their vision is not to claim solutions, but to open doors—encouraging people to view their environment with a sense of belonging, beauty, and care.
The Arts and Culture Community Centre has led creative litter picks that combine environmental education with music, theatre, and clowning. Events such as the Santa Clown litter pick, the Wombles, the Easter Bunny clean-up, Star Wars-themed activities, and the Clown Cleaning Circus have turned what is usually a chore into a joyful and engaging community event. Children, in particular, have responded with enthusiasm, highlighting the potential of the younger generation to shape the future of the neighbourhood.
In addition, initiatives such as the Light the Night Walk—where families gather in October with glow sticks, lanterns, music, and banners—promote unity, love, and pride in the community. Beyond these activities, efforts have included gifting brooms, planting flowers, and improving public gardens, all of which contribute to making Hexthorpe more welcoming.
The results are beginning to show. Residents say the streets are cleaner today than they were five years ago, and there is a growing sense of ownership among the community. While challenges remain, these artistic and community-based initiatives have created a positive momentum.
Alongside the issue of fly-tipping, Hexthorpe also faces challenges linked to inactivity and unemployment. As a neighbourhood identified as facing higher levels of deprivation, some families live with fewer opportunities. Yet this makes the effort to improve the environment even more powerful: studies show that a clean, attractive, and cared-for community can support mental health, inspire activity, and encourage people to re-engage in productive life. In this way, environmental care is not only an aesthetic choice, but also a pathway towards wellbeing, productivity, and opportunity—for families, for the neighbourhood, and for the wider city.
Local leaders stress that more collaboration is needed. They hope authorities will continue to listen and act, not only through enforcement but by encouraging wider participation and fostering policies that inspire residents to care for their environment.
Much of this progress has been possible thanks to collaboration with the City of Doncaster Council, whose support has helped community efforts to flourish. Local organisations and residents hope this cooperation will continue to grow, building a stronger sense of belonging and citizenship. Through artistic expression and shared responsibility, Hexthorpe is showing that even complex problems like fly-tipping can be approached with creativity, care, and hope.
Report written by Luz Welmans, community reporter and Director of the Arts and Culture Community Centre (Hexthorpe), sharing the journey of Hexthorpe residents against fly-tipping.
