REPRESENTATIVES from the police, fire service and council held a walkabout in St Helen Auckland and West Auckland to see how they could tackle ongoing issues in the area such as fly tipping and anti social behaviour.

The group started at Oakley Green, in West Auckland, where residents have raised concerns about youths starting fires with litter left from fly tipping.

They also viewed the land and forest at the back of the Manor House Hotel and SPAR shop where some of the residents had had their wheelie bins set on fire.

Dave Glendenning, assistant district manager for the fire service, said firefighters had attended 30 incidents since last May and that there had been a noticeable increase in calls between September and November.

“The call volumes have reduced in line with the colder weather, however as the weather improves we would anticipate that they will pick back up again,” he said.

Leading the walkabout, Sergeant Jayne Burdess-Hoseason, said: “Over a long period of time there’s been issues, certainly from the fire service, around secondary fires and their call outs to different areas around here.

“Some of that is linked with fly tipping and the long-term problems around this area so all the partners are trying to collectively look into what the problems are and trying to make the area better.

“We have got a lot of work to do from this point but we needed to come out collectively as a group and have a look to identify the different areas so we can go back and see how to resolve them.”

District manager for the fire service, Andy Whitehead, said the group were taking on a massive project but had been able to subdivide the area up by plotting where all the fires had been and were also working with the parish council.

Neighbourhood protection coordinator for Durham County Council, Richard Brown, said the area was a hot spot for fly tipping and that the council was looking at ways to deter people from doing it through Operation Stop It which involves specialist offices investigating incidents as well as using CCTV.

He also said civic pride teams would be working with the local schools and the community.

“I would encourage anyone who witnesses anyone fly tipping to report it to the council,” he said.

The group said they would be considering seven new actions as a result of the walk about and would discuss them at their next meeting on May 9.