A POLICE boundary line which sliced a County Durham village in half has been redrawn in response to calls from concerned members of public.

For several years both Peterlee and Sedgefield Neighbourhood Policing Teams have shared control of Trimdon Colliery – with the border marking their areas of responsibility running down the main street.

Durham Police has now revised the boundary to satisfy residents who felt their homes were divided, leaving policing matters in Trimdon Colliery completely in the hands of officers in Peterlee.

Inspector Sarah Honeyman, of Newton Aycliffe Police, which covers the town, Shildon, Sedgefield and the other Trimdons, said: "As a force we have listened to our communities and have carried out work over the past few months to address this."

The force reviewed the boundary lines following requests from residents and councillors who claimed the community felt divided.

However, due to resources the Trimdons were unable to fall entirely under the Sedgefield remit.

Insp Honeyman said: "We couldn't put the Trimdons together because it's too demand intensive. The best way was to include Trimdon Colliery into Peterlee.

"We looked at demand and incident numbers and had to make sure it didn't put onto one team unfairly."

While the changes will come into affect on Tuesday, August 1, the respective beat and response teams will more-or-less approach business as usual, according to the Inspector.

She has issued assurances that in an emergency situation the nearest officers will attend and both teams will continue to patrol the formerly divided area.

"The boundary changes are really in terms of dealing with long-running incidents, neighbourhood disputes and community problems," she added. "They will still be policed by the nearest resources. This has always been the case."

Insp Honeyman has also defended the efforts of officers across the two areas after residents expressed a view that the Trimdons "fall in the cracks" and were not policed regularly.

She said: "In the case of the Trimdons, officers from Peterlee and Sedgefield regularly patrol all areas and do not distinguish between boundaries for patrol purposes.

"The two teams always work closely together, sharing intelligence and addressing issues in the community as a team."

Officers responsible for the Peterlee side of the boundary line are PC Steve Rowe and PCSO David Weston while PC John Seymour and PC Lisa Hall cover south of the line.

PACT meetings for each area are advertised on the force's website where details of the local teams can be found.