Day of Action targets Safer Streets project area

The event will take place in the Oxford Road area on Thursday (December 17th) from 10am to 3pm.

Representatives of the Hartlepool Community Safety Team which comprises staff from Hartlepool Borough Council, Cleveland Police and Cleveland Fire Brigade; Cleveland Police’s Community and Partnerships Team; the Office of Cleveland’s Police and Crime Commissioner and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust will be engaging with residents in Cornwall Street, Charterhouse Street, Uppingham Street, Richmond Street, Dorset Street and Rydal Street.

They will be knocking on doors and providing residents with a free home security kit containing four window alarms, one door alarm, one TV simulator, one UV property marking pen and two light timers. Residents will also be offered a home security survey by a Police Crime Prevention Officer

All six streets have particularly high levels of acquisitive crime and are within the wider Burn Valley area covered by a Home Office-funded Safer Streets project following a successful bid for funding by the Office of Cleveland’s Police and Crime Commissioner which secured £444,608 to tackle burglary.

The Safer Streets project will get underway this month and measures will include:

• Three fixed-location CCTV cameras at the junctions of Cornwall Street and Shrewsbury Street, Cornwall Street and Eton Street and Oxford Road and Richmond Street.
• Mobile CCTV cameras capable of being deployed around the Safer Streets area.
• Additional street lighting in rear alleyways.
• Improvements to alley gates.
• Securing empty properties identified as being at risk of potential break-in with metal door and windows security screens featuring artwork to help them blend in with the surroundings.
• Assisting residents to set up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme.
• The employment of a Community Link Worker for 12 months who will work with residents to improve the area.
• A three-month pilot mediation service to tackle neighbourhood disputes.
• Offering free DNA property marking kits to landlords with empty properties in the area.

During the Day of Action, residents will be briefed about the Safer Streets project and asked to highlight particular problems affecting the areas in which they live. A Community Safety trailer will be parked at the junction of Cornwall Street and Uppingham Street to provide a drop-in point for residents.

Nicholas Stone, Neighbourhood Safety Team Leader at Hartlepool Borough Council and part of the Hartlepool Community Safety Team, said: “The Safer Streets project has the potential to really make a difference in this area, but the support of residents is vital if it is to ultimately be successful.

“Thursday’s Day of action is an opportunity for them to find out more about the project and how they can get involved. I would urge them to talk to staff from the agencies involved.”

Local Policing Chief Inspector Pete Graham added: “We were delighted to hear of the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner’s successful bid for funding to target burglary and other priority crimes via a Safer Streets initiative in the wider Burn Valley area.  This planned Day of Action fits well within the plans to drive down crime by working with our partners and residents to improve quality of life for the law-abiding majority in our community.”

The Day of Action comes hard on the heels of successful enforcement action by the Hartlepool Community Safety Team which resulted in Teesside Magistrates granting two three-month Premise Closure Orders to shut down two properties in Stirling Street, part of the Safer Streets area, that were being used for drug dealing. Another Premise Closure Order application for a property in Derby Street is due to be heard by the court on December 29th.

During the Day of Action, a Community Protection Notice will also be issued to deal with the anti-social behaviour of a person who has been harassing vulnerable people in the area.