'Money, or lack of it' leading to problems with crime in Hartlepool, meeting hears

But police chiefs say they are in a ‘positive position’ in the town despite a ‘difficult journey’ lying ahead.

It comes after feedback was given from the Tees Serious Violence Summit held jointly by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland the local authority in Hartlepool in February.

Coun Lesley Hamilton, who attended the event, provided an update on what was said at the summit when councillors met at Hartlepool Borough Council’s Audit and Governance Committee.

Coun Hamilton hit out that police services in the area had been ‘cut to the bone’ while young people also suffered from cuts to youth services from central government.

She said: “While they continue to cut services and budgets and reduce police numbers inevitably crime is going to increase.

“Obviously the cuts to youth services, certainly in Hartlepool where it has been decimated, unfortunately because of these cuts inevitably young people are going to engage in criminal conduct.

“If we had those things in place then our young people would have somewhere to go and education would be distributed through those services.

“We’ve been cut to the bone in terms of police numbers and other associated factors in order to keep crime down.

“Everybody who sat around the tables all said the same thing, the issue is money and a lack of, particularly in towns like Hartlepool.”

Chief Inspector Peter Graham, from Cleveland Police, said he thought it was a ‘fantastic conference’ and noted it highlighted opportunities where organisations in Hartlepool need to work together to bid for external funding.

He also noted policing is in a ‘positive position’ in Hartlepool with officer numbers increasing, although there is a difficult journey ahead.

The senior officer said he wanted to highlight the resources the force did have at its disposal in the town

He said: “From a Hartlepool perspective I’m really trying to drive the numbers we have in neighbourhood policing.

“We also have a community unit so that we can start to target things, especially knife crime.

“We’re in a positive position regarding policing, it’s going to be a really, really difficult journey, because to get where we want to be in problem solving, which reduces crime, we’re going to have to take some of our response officers away.

“We have to do it because we’ve got criminals out there and at some point we have to problem solve as opposed to just try and tackle the end result.

“There’s some positives but it will be a difficult journey.”

The event also featured a presentation from the Chris Cave Foundation on the work they do to support and educate families and local communities affected by violent knife crimes.

The foundation was set up by Theresa Cave, in memory of her son Chris, after he was stabbed to death in Redcar in 2003.

Police praised the presentation and added Theresa is going to come to Hartlepool to brief staff on their work.