Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, has been meeting with police across County Durham to see what they have been up to and what he can do to assist them.
Richard visited Crook Police Station to meet with Ed Turner, the Neighbourhood Inspector who is responsible for the Teesdale and Weardale districts. Ed works with residents, stakeholders and police across the North East to reduce offences, assist victims of crime and work with local communities to ensure they remain safe for residents. Ed introduced Richard to the team at Crook Police Station and they discussed local crime, especially rural crime, and what the police are doing and can do to stop it and help those affected.
Richard also visited Durham Police Headquarters, which covers the whole of County Durham and Richard’s constituency, to discuss crime more generally in the whole area. Richard met with the acting Crime and Victims’ Commissioner and discussed rural crime and policing, suicide prevention (you can read about Richard’s work on this here) and police funding. Extra funding will mean almost 70 more officers next year and 220 more officers within the next three years.
Commenting, Richard stated ‘It was really great to have the chance to meet members of the local police and to visit the headquarters and Crook Police Station. I was really glad to get the opportunity to discuss what they’ve been working on and some of the key issues that they face on a daily basis, particularly the rural crime that they deal with regularly. They are a really genuinely great group of people and all care so much for everyone in the area - they do an amazing amount for our local communities and I’d really like to thank them for all the work that they do in keeping our residents safe. I am hoping to visit them again soon to meet more of the team and will be working with them closely to ensure that all our communities and residents are kept safe.’
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