Local News

A report detailing the quality of life in our area has been released, and it makes unpleasant reading;

A prolific shoplifter who was once barred from entering certain shops is now behind bars;

...and the volunteers of the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team have been called into action in our area.

A report detailing the quality of life in our area has been released, and it makes unpleasant reading.

Redcar and Cleveland has the lowest new business start-up rate in England, worsening child poverty and secondary schools lagging behind others in the North-East.

Redcar and Cleveland Council leader Mary Lanigan said she is not proud of a report showing how badly our borough is lagging behind other areas when it comes to key quality of life indicators.

The author of the report, council managing director John Sampson, said its purpose was to consider the scale of the challenge being faced by the borough and any additional actions that needed to be taken, within available resources, to make improvements.

The report summarises that some aspects of quality of life had worsened in the last year, with many reasons for this, although some were described as being beyond the council’s control.

A prolific shoplifter who was once barred from entering certain shops is now behind bars.

27-year-old Stephen Barker appeared at Teesside Magistrates' Court on Friday to face a string of offences relating to thefts and breaches.

In March this year, the court gave him an 18-month Criminal Behaviour Order barring him from entering certain retail premises in Eston.

These include Iceland on Birchington Avenue, Lodge Filling Station on High Street and Costcutters on Fabian Court.

Barker, of the High Street in Eston, was sentenced to 14 weeks in prison after he was charged with eight shop thefts, one bike theft and eight breaches of the Criminal Behaviour Order.

The volunteers of the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team have been called into action in our area.

The team were contacted just after 11am on Bank Holiday Monday to attend to a report of a woman who had sustained a leg injury after falling on the steps below Roseberry Topping in Newton Wood.

Upon arrival the casualty was treated for a suspected broken leg and was provided with pain relief.

She was then lifted her onto one of our specialist stretchers, wrapped in a vacuum mattress and carried a couple of hundred metres to an ambulance and taken to hospital.