Mayor responds to Morpeth being in top three burglary hotspots in county

But Coun Alison Byard added that Morpeth Town Council has raised some issues with Northumbria Police, including a plea to make better use of its CCTV.

A Freedom of Information request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service earlier this month revealed burglaries data for various towns.

The top nine worst affected areas were listed and after Ashington and Blyth in first and second respectively, Morpeth was third with 138 from the start of July in 2021 to the end of June this year.

Coun Byard said she is in regular contact with police in Morpeth and although burglary accounted for just 4.6 per cent of all crimes in the town during that period, she has stressed the message that all crimes are taken very seriously by the team.

She added: “Any increase in the burglary figures for Morpeth are probably the result of the multiple shed, garage and car break-ins in the last few months – carried out by a few persistent, problem offenders whom the Morpeth Neighbourhood Policing Team are working diligently to deal with.

“Both Morpeth Town Council, and I as Mayor, are in regular touch with our Neighbourhood Policing Team to discuss current issues of concern.

“Although many residents are unhappy that Morpeth Police Station is now closed to the public and would like to see more officers on the beat again, our Neighbourhood Team regularly assure us that crime is relatively low in Morpeth.

“Morpeth Town Council would like to see better use made of our excellent quality town centre CCTV in raising the conviction rate, especially in raising awareness of it with officers working on Morpeth from outside the area. I raised this personally with the Chief Constable at a recent event.”

The Freedom of Information request also found that, of 1,032 burglaries to take place in the worst-affected areas of the county, just 58 offenders had been convicted.

Northumbria Police said the figure does not include the fact that a number of cases have not yet been concluded and the force is above the national average for burglary detection.