A PUBLIC meeting is to be held after a police inspector played down concerns of gangs of youths carrying knives in Haltwhistle.

Speaking at a meeting of Tynedale Local Area Council, long serving chairman of Haltwhistle Town Council Cllr Alan Sharp said residents were “scared to walk down the street at night” following a spate of anti-social behaviour.

Cllr Sharp, who is also a county councillor for the Haydon and Hadrian ward, was speaking to Northumbria Police’s acting neighbourhood inspector for the Tynedale area, Kate Benson. He said he was reporting what he had been told by members of the public at a recent meeting of the town council.

Mr Sharp said: “We had about 20 people turn up to the town council to address serious concerns about anti-social behaviour going on in Haltwhistle. There has been serious issues over the past month.

“I have been told there are people carrying knives. People have gone into shops and threatened staff, people are going into pubs and causing problems.

“This is a very serious problem. We have gangs coming into town, young people as young as 14 or 15 getting involved in serious anti-social behaviour.

“People have concerns about walking down the street in the evening. It is the most serious I have ever seen it.”

Cllr Sharp asked Acting Insp. Benson for more support from the police in the town.

He said: “I have been chairman of the town council for 23 years and I’ve never known the public turn up to the meeting like that.

"I know the police can’t be everywhere but we need some resources.

“I would like to know what the police can do and how they can help. A lot of people are saying they have reported things to the police and people don’t come back to them.

“I’m not blaming the police. I am asking them for help and support.”

Acting Insp. Benson cautioned against using hyberbolic language.

She said: “I am concerned around terms such as 'gangs'. I don’t believe there are gangs in Haltwhistle. There are groups of youths that may cause anti-social behaviour. There is no background and substance to reports of people carrying knives.

“We do carry out searches. Over the last few months, we have carried out 20 stop searches in Tynedale. Eleven in Hexham related to looking for weapons, but no weapons have been found.”

Acting Insp. Benson also said Tynedale remained a safe place to live - despite the recent alleged murder of teenager Holly Newton, of Haltwhistle, in Hexham.

READ MORE: Hexham goes purple for Holly, 15

She explained: “We haven’t increased our searches…That was an isolated incident.

“We have gossip in Haltwhistle and people fan the flames. Haltwhistle is a safe place to live.

“There are levels of anti-social behaviour – you get that in most towns – but there isn’t a knife issue and there isn’t gangs. We’re perhaps blocking children wrongly.

“People put two and two together and they come up with five.”