Safer Streets

Pupils at Lynnfield Primary School have used their artistic skills to demonstrate their pride in their local community.

The Years 5/6 children have designed posters featuring anti-dog fouling and anti-littering messages which are being put up on lampposts around Victoria Ward.

They entered a competition run as part of the Safer Streets 5 initiative which is tackling anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime in the area.

Hartlepool Borough Council has received £335,408 from the Home Office through the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland to fund a series of measures.

The winners of the poster competition each received a gift voucher and a certificate at a special school assembly attended by councillors, council officers and representatives of Hartlepool police.

The winners with (back row,left-right) Carolyn Lakin, PC Geoff Coggin, Community Cohesion Officer Martin Jones, Cllr Karen Oliver, Environmental Projects Officer Thomas Carroll, Councillor Christopher Wallace, Kieran Bostock and Executive Head Sue Sharpe.

Councillor Karen Oliver, Chair of Hartlepool Borough Council’s Neighbourhood Services Committee, paid tribute to the efforts of all pupils, telling them: “Congratulations to the winners but in my eyes every one of you is a winner.

“I am absolutely delighted to see the passion and care you all have for your local community. If we are to make a difference across the town as a whole then everyone must come together and do their bit – and you are already setting a great example.”

Head of School Carolyn Lakin said: “As a school, it is vitally important that we understand the impact of litter, both in school and the wider community. Our pupils have worked incredibly hard to ensure the school is clean and litter-free and they are keen to extend that to the wider community.”

Kieran Bostock, the Council’s Assistant Director – Neighbourhood Services, also spoke at the assembly and explained to the pupils how every year the authority collects some 900 tonnes of waste and litter that hasn’t been disposed of in a bin – in addition to the more than 500 tonnes that it collects from over 750 litter bins across the borough. This is done alongside the amazing work of Hartlepool Big Town Tidy Up who have collected over 10,000 bags of litter this year.