A MEETING has been held to discuss the effects of the recession on Darlington residents.

Members of the board of Darlington Partnership claim the poorest areas the hardest hit.

During the meeting, Darlington's director of Public Health Miriam Davidson told the Board: "Statistics may be global but the impact is personal.

"Given the current economic position we are reasserting our efforts to narrow this unacceptable gap."

Darlington Council's safer communities co-ordinator Rob Jones said the downturn was also triggering an increase in crime.

He added: "We are able to use our intelligence cleverly and will continue to do so.

"Our data highlights the troublespots and we have been able to target resources with great effect.

"We were able to home-in on particular streets and there have been arrests which has had a huge impact on crime levels and raised public confidence."

Darlington Partnership chairman Alasdair MacConachie said: "When we started this process we had no idea a recession of such severity was on the cards.

"All the key agencies in the town are doing their utmost to get the borough through these difficult times and into better ones."