Cleveland PCC calls for fair funding for Teesside police
Cleveland's police and crime commissioner is calling for Teesside to get it's fair share of funding to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour
Cleveland's police and crime commissioner is calling for Teesside to get it's fair share of funding to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.
Matt Storey has written to the Home Secretary - highlighting the effects of the recent Safer Streets funding in areas of Stockton.
He spoke as £331,000 funding was launched for a Safer Streets drive in the Portrack, Tilery and Ropner areas of Stockton, tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and neighbourhood crime with CCTV, lighting, kick rails, help for vulnerable residents, education and preventative work.
He said: “It has had a significant impact. It has reduced ASB. It was something like a 47% reduction in ASB in the area.
“It’s clear from residents that they are finding the measures are starting to have a positive impact. There’s less of an issue now with drug dealing in terms of off-road bikes between Tilery and Portrack because they find it harder to get in and out of the estates.”
He argued anti-social behaviour needed to be dealt with in parallel with crime as it affected communities just as much. He told how patrols targeting hotspots in Stockton, Billingham and Thornaby, with more than £135,000 spent in 2023-4 and another £263,000 in 2024-5, bringing in six more council enforcement officers, had reduced anti-social behaviour.
He said Teesside was “bucking the national trend” for shoplifting: “We’ve got a really good record for tackling retail crime locally. I’m confidence the force is doing as much as they can.”
He spoke of frustration about shoplifter sentences, but said a recent study found many retailers preferred community orders as short prison terms simply put people back out to commit the same crimes instead of giving them skills, training and tackling the reasons for offending such as drug issues: “We need to make sure we have public health solutions in place as well as enforcement work.”
He also referred to more than £60,000 for metal detector wands to scan for knives, bleed kits to help people with injuries, more CCTV, “street angels” helping people in need, training, radio and ID scanners. He said they hoped to expand radio systems in Yarm, and more training and media campaigns.
He said they needed to see what happened in the Budget and a forthcoming spending review: “There is a lack of clarity on funding. The previous government often delivered some pots of funding that were delivering particular projects for a year or so then they would stop. We’ll be able to see what the new government want to do, how they want to run things and what will their priorities.
“I’ve written to the Home Secretary and I’ve pushed on funding because we do need a better funding settlement for Cleveland Police, that’s really important. Cleveland Police I think do an exceptional job in very difficult circumstances, they do their very best within a very tight funding envelope.
“We would like to police Cleveland very much differently if we could, but currently the funding formula mitigates against that. I’m asking the Home Secretary to look again at the funding formula, based on need and deprivation rather than scarcity.
“Hopefully the government will listen to that but I will keep pushing at that door,” he told a Stockton Council community safety select committee meeting.
He said people did not feel safe and had persisting fears and perception of crime despite figures showed crime falling, but added: “One of the things I think will be really important is the increase in officers. The current government has said there’ll be 13,000 more officers (nationally).
“The conversations I’ve had with the Home Office and their officials suggest that is going to happen. What that looks like for us and what our share of that will be I don’t know yet.
“But they are working on those things and my hope is that will make a difference. We’ve lost 500 officers since 2010.”
He said he wanted to stop officers being dragged out of neighbourhoods into response work and make an impact with “effective and visible” neighbourhood policing, solving problems in communities: “Talking with the residents, they feel like that approach has worked really well for them. The problem we have is often the neighbourhood cops get drawn into responsibilities and end up doing blue-light work.”
He said they also needed education and diversion work: “We’re investing as much as we possibly can in those preventative measures that stop crime and anti-social behaviour before it actually happens.”
Councillor Ann McCoy, who represents Billingham Central, said the figures were encouraging: “But there is an issue of confidence from the public.”
Cllr Paul Rowling, for Stockton town centre, said: “It’s heartening to hear that some of the residents do feel that things have got a bit better. But we’re nowhere near where we need to be.”
Mr Storey said he wanted to boost confidence in police, and will chair a public panel of local people for them to challenge senior officers. He urged people to report crime through 999, 101, Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or the COPA app.
He said: “Wherever I go, I always stress to people, you have to report crime. Whatever you’ve seen, make sure you report it.
“Even if the police don’t attend, it will become part of that intelligence picture. That intelligence is absolutely critical. Reporting is absolutely essential.”