NORTHUMBRIA Police officers will today meet councillors and other agencies to tackle the problem of youth disorder in South Tyneside.

The half-day workshop, at 1pm at South Shields Police Station, has been arranged to come up with creative and innovative solutions following a series of incidents.

Inspector Paul Orchard, South Tyneside Area Command, said: " We are committed to a problem solving approach in South Tyneside, which means that a number of agencies work together to come up with practical solutions to solve problems affecting local communities.

"We hope that by getting together with all the interested agencies we will be able to come up with some new solutions which we will be able to apply to youth disorder."

This is the first time that the area command has decided to host a seminar on the subject.

If the feedback from those taking part is constructive, officers hope to hold further such sessions in the future.

Youth disorder has increased by seven per cent in the South Tyneside borough from April 2002, as compared with figures for the previous year.

Organisations involved in the seminar include local authority community safety officers, staff from the Youth Offending Team, and local community centre representatives.