POLICE chief Ron Hogg has moved to reassure residents that a feud within the travelling community which has seen petrol bomb attacks, the theft of teenagers’ skulls from their graves, and a drive by shooting, was “posturing”.

The Police, Crime and Victims Commissioner for Durham said residents and the wider traveller community had no reason to fear as the feud was contained within a very small part of the minority community.

He said other travellers were “ashamed” by the behaviour of the small number of people who were linked with a series of ramraids into properties around Darlington, as well as a drive-by shooting just off Neasham Road last weekend, which police said was linked to the feud.

Mr Hogg met with members of the travelling community in Darlington this week in a move to reassure them, he told Darlington Borough Councillors at a full council meeting on Thursday night.

He was responding to a question from Labour’s Veronica Copeland, councillor for the Bank Top and Lascelles area of Darlington, which is home to a large proportion of travellers.

She said: “We are having an ongoing problem within the travelling community and we are asking police to reassure residents that you are doing all that you can to get the matter resolved.”

Mr Hogg said he had been trying to dispel people’s fears that very day by meeting the community.

Speaking to The Northern Echo yesterday, he said: “I had a meeting with some people within the travelling community discussing general issues.

“I think there is a danger that we overplay what is happening.

“Obviously it is serious but it is only going to affect particular groups of people.

“It is not a threat that we consider to the population in general.

“The members of the travelling community I spoke to were ashamed of it, they were ashamed of what was happening.

“We keep close to the travelling community, we are in constant contact with them as we are with all minority communities.”

Most of the homes that have been targeted have been empty at the time, and Mr Hogg said: “It is posturing and such like.

“The general population have nothing to fear about what is happening.”

Police described Saturday’s drive-by shooting as a targeted attack that was being taken seriously, as it was a gun fired in the middle of a street.

The shooting, which happened at about 1.30pm last Saturday, saw police officers order residents to stay indoors and left the targeted car – a black Vauxhall Insignia – peppered with marks.