Northumbria Police has had some excellent results fighting crime lately. A confiscation order for £33,621 was issued following a case where an Ashington drug dealer fled to Spain but was later extradited and jailed for 13 years. Also, in March a local drug dealer was ordered to pay back thousands he had earned selling Class A drugs on Wearside. He was also sentenced to 9 years in prison.

It’s good work like this that contributes to my Operation Payback funding pot and applications have just opened for the 5th round of the fund. This means I’ll be investing over £100,000 into communities and projects to improve lives and prevent crime. This now takes the Op Payback total to over £1million invested across our region.

Know a project that can make a difference local to you? Get your applications in NOW.
 

I always feel like Summer has begun when the Hoppings comes to town. The fun of the fair certainly gets Newcastle buzzing. In fact, the whole North East has been buzzing this month. On one night alone Sunderland hosted international pop star P!nk meanwhile local hero Sam Fender wowed the crowds at St James’ Park. The North East has really felt on a high. We know how to put on a show up here and we certainly don’t want anything spoiling the fun for gig goers and fair fans either. That’s why I invested in lots of extra work – more police patrols, more youth workers, increased security teams on the Metro and increased council resource. Thanks to everyone who has helped our region to shine, and to do so safely

I’VE LAUNCHED A NEW VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS STRATEGY TO DRIVE CULTURE CHANGE IN THE NORTH EAST

These lovely colleagues at Northumbrian Water are the latest signups to our workplace domestic abuse champions scheme. The more organisations and businesses we have looking out for colleagues and pushing for culture change the better.

My commitment to building on work like this and a whole raft of other prevention and intervention work is detailed in my new VAWG strategy that I launched at the start of the month, and you can read more about HERE.