Fire brigade chiefs have outlined plans to work with schools in Hartlepool to help tackle antisocial behaviour such as deliberate fires and false alarms.

Cleveland Fire Brigade bosses revealed initiatives such as education campaigns, support tackling fly-tipping and community skips are to be used to help reduce deliberate fire starting over the spring and summer months.

Recent reports from the brigade showed from April to December 2023 there were 621 deliberate fires in Hartlepool, with 551 being secondary incidents, which are small outdoor fires not involving people or property.

While the figures mark a decrease on the 820 overall deliberate fires recorded during the period in 2022, of which 737 were secondary blazes, brigade chiefs stressed work is ongoing to reduce the numbers further.

Carl Pattinson, station manager for Hartlepool, said they are looking to work with partner organisations in the town, along with schools, to tackle deliberate fire starting and other forms of antisocial behaviour.

He added: “Education in schools which will be centred around the arson reduction strategy.

“Deliberate fires take up a huge amount of not only our time but also our financial resources as well.

“We’ve also seen a slight spike in false alarm malicious calls and false 999 calls, so our schools education coordinator will put that on the agenda to get the kids to hopefully reduce that.”

He added they are also looking to provide community skips in hot spot locations to help reduce fly-tipping and remove materials which could be used to start fires, as well as urging people to not leave their wheelie bins out.

The latest meeting of the Safer Hartlepool Partnership heard the top three types of deliberate fires in the borough since April 2023 were loose refuse, accounting for 352 incidents, grassland, with 105, and wheelie bins, with 60.

Meanwhile Manor House was the ward which has seen the highest number of such deliberate incidents with 138, followed by Rossmere with 108,  Headland and Harbour with 90 and De Bruce with 53.

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Fire brigade chiefs added a multi-agency group looking at tackling deliberate fires which “can blight our community” in Hartlepool is also in place.

Councillor Brenda Harrison, speaking at Monday’s (February 26) meeting, praised the initiatives in place from the fire brigade.

She added: “I think going into schools is imperative and hopefully that will cause some of the antisocial behaviour with fires to go down.”