OPINION: Take Your Anger to the Civic Centre or Outside a Police Station and Make Hartlepool’s Leaders Listen
Take Your Frustration to the Civic Centre — And Demand a Town to Be Proud Of
8th November 2026
Opinion
Imagine what Hartlepool could achieve if the energy spent gathering yesterday evening outside people’s homes was channeled right outside the councils Civic Centre or the Police Station demanding a safer, cleaner and better-run town.
Imagine the same public determination outside the Civic Centre, calling for better neighbourhood services, tenants properly vetted before being place in local communities better maintained public spaces and more accountability from those responsible for spending our public money.
That's the kind of pressure many would like to see in Hartlepool.
The latest report of a so called 'peaceful protest in King Oswy Drive Hartlepool, where a home was damaged and additional police resources were needed to disperse the crowd, should make people stop and consider what these demonstrations are actually achieving.
A damaged property does nothing to improve the town. A frightened neighbour gains nothing from a huge crowd on their doorstep. And police officers dealing with disorder outside a house are officers who have had to be drawn into managing that incident taking resources away from other serious incidents.
There's do argument that these 'protests' have real energy behind them. There's anger, determination and an ability to successfully utalise social media to get people to turn up. Those qualities could become a powerful force for improvement simply if they were directed towards the very institutions who are allowing the town to be effectively run into the ground.
Anyone capable of mobilising a such a crowd through social media could use that same platform to organise a peaceful demonstration about the condition of Hartlepool and the safety of its neighbourhoods right outside of the very buildings where those decisions are being made and likely have more of an impact that committing criminal damage to a property which when repaired, is left with the landlords tenants shouldering the bill through increased rents.
Turn up at the Civic Centre with specific questions. Ask what's being done about neglected public spaces, why criminals with a history of crimes against children are being housed in social housing. Ask your councillors to explain their decisions and publish the answers for everyone to see.
Take concerns about those being housed in your local community to the police station. Ask how these people are being housed in social housing, and how residents can judge whether local policing is really making a difference.
Then keep asking. Attend public meetings. Follow up the responses. Measure promises against what happens on the streets.
Concern about protecting children is entirely understandable. People should expect allegations of abuse to be taken very seriously, evidence to be investigated and offenders to face justice.
But an accusation circulating online is no substitute for evidence & it will come a time when some social media group will get it wrong..... & an innocent family will have their lives torn apart.
Gathering outside a home can also affect children, relatives and neighbours who have no involvement in whatever allegation is being made.
Anyone claiming to act in the interests of the community should be prepared to consider the consequences for that wider community.
Calling a gathering “peaceful” carries a responsibility to keep it peaceful. When damage occurs, the people left behind still have to live with the aftermath once the crowd has dispersed & has gone home.
It would be much better to see that collective determination directed towards the institutions with the authority, budgets and responsibility to improve Hartlepool, they're the ones making the decisions, they're the ones who should be expecting the crowds outside of the buildings where those decisions are taking place.
The council, Thirteen Housing and the police should be able to explain their work, defend their decisions and listen to genuine public criticism. Residents are entitled to demand more from them, and peaceful public protest is one way of making those demands visible.
A demonstration outside of a property won't repair every street or solve every crime. But a campaign with clear demands, evidence and people willing to keep turning up to the councils doorstep could build pressure for meaningful change far better than a mob outside a home with scared children inside.
If people want to organise, then organise for cleaner streets, safer communities, better services and proper accountability from those who've supposedly been elected to do the work we ask of them.
Take your energy to the Civic Centre. Take those questions to the police station. Keep it peaceful, make the demands clear and hold those responsible to their answers.
Because, if the same determination shown yesterday had been organised outside of the council building, or the police station, Hartlepool could be a much better place....
As it stands, with the police seeking further dispersal orders should tensions rise again, the only winners out of this are the police, who, in collusion with the government are salami slicing away free speech & right to lawful protest day after day.
You're handing them the fuel to stop legitimate protests taking place.
