Cleveland Police handed additional £2m to tackle organised crime after A66 crash

Last month, a head-on crash killed two police officers - Pc Matthew Blades, 37, and Pc Tom Clough, 38 - and five young men, after their car ploughed into the police response vehicle when travelling the wrong way down the A66.

A few days later a house fire claimed the lives of a seven-year-old girl and her aunt. Since then, a man has been stabbed and houses have been rammed with cars in Middlesbrough.

While a memorial to one of the young men killed in the crash saw numerous cars set alight.

Police have now arrested at least 27 people since the horror smash on August 22, while four of the five young men who died had extensive criminal histories.

Andy Burnham told the Commons: “I know the whole House will wish to join me in expressing deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Pc Matthew Blades and Pc Tom Clough, who were killed in the line of duty on the A66.

“We will do our best to support the Middlesbrough community, which is hurting and grieving right now, and we hear the call from the members of this House representing it for a discussion about investment in policing and police numbers.”

Making her statement, Ms Mahmood paid tribute to Pc Blades as a “devoted father” and Pc Clough as a “hero” to his family.

She said: “Policing is not just a profession, it is a calling, answered only by those who are willing to place themselves in harm’s way to protect us all.

“Pc Blades and Pc Clough epitomised that courage.”

Ms Mahmood also told the Commons: “I can also announce today that, in light of the situation the force has faced, we will allocate an additional £2m to Cleveland Police to tackle serious crime in the area.”

This comes after hundreds of police officers have been drafted into the region from neighbouring forces.

However, Cleveland’s Labour Police and Crime Commissioner Matt Storey said that the force was still facing a £2.4m shortfall.

He said the additional funding “completely fails to deliver the resources required to meet the demand faced by Cleveland Police and falls far short of what is needed”.

This comes as Teesside residents told the Centre for Social Justice’s Hijacked High Streets inquiry that they felt unsafe to go to the shops.

One said: “None of us will ever go into the town because there are no shops, because it’s purely unsafe to be on your own there.

“You get people coming up to you, you’re scared about getting your phone nicked.

“I wouldn’t go into Middlesbrough on my own, I wouldn’t go into Stockton on my own.”

The CSJ warned that years of failing to confront anti-social behaviour, shoplifting and criminal businesses have created “consequence-free zones” in which more serious organised crime has taken root.

It said penalties for persistent anti-social behaviour are applied inconsistently across the country, creating a “postcode lottery” in which many prolific offenders face few meaningful consequences.

Police sources told the inquiry that Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) are among the most effective sanctions for tackling persistent anti-social behaviour, however it said just 45 were issued by Cleveland Police.

The force is one of the smallest in the UK, and has lost hundreds of officers since 2010.

The inquiry said that benefits should be docked and social housing tenants should face eviction where members of their household persistently terrorise their neighbours with anti-social behaviour.

In Prime Minister’s Questions today, Andy Burnham said that this kind of behaviour should not be accepted as “the daily norm in communities”.

“I happen to support the broken windows theory of policing,” he added.

“If we let small things go, bigger things come along, and we should change how we think about neighbourhood policing, as the Home Secretary is doing.”