AN advertising trailer will soon be taking to the streets of Teesside to promote home safety.

Cleveland's fire brigade and police force are joining together to get residents to take the problem of fire safety and burglaries seriously.

The brigade will be driving the trailer, promoting its home fire safety checks and encouraging people to lock their doors to prevent burglaries around "hot spots" in the area.

They will concentrate their efforts on areas that have had a spate of burglaries or fire-related incidents to try to eradicate them.

Tony Churchill, Grangetown fire station manager, said: "We've taken this opportunity to work with Cleveland Police to promote both of our safety messages.

"We have the same common goal, to make our communities safer, and so have grabbed this chance to go out into the community and try to get our messages across in a unique way.

"We are always looking at different means of telling people about our free home fire safety checks, and when Cleveland Police told us about the trailer, we jumped on board with the idea and offered to mobilise it."

The initiative ties in well with the Cleveland Police campaign that has been running for a few months, to warn householders about insecure burglaries.

Glynn Bass, Middlesbrough Police crime reduction officer, said: "People in Middlesbrough will be used to seeing the trailer, and so long as they continue to allow burglars to take advantage of open or unlocked doors and windows, our advice stays the same: 'Shut it Lock it'."