By Martin Walker
Aycliffe police officers have joined forces with local residents to help a pensioner suffering from anti-social problems in the Horndale area of the town.
At a Police And Communities Together (PACT) meeting on Wednesday night this week, residents expressed their concerns for local pensioner Alice Hillerby.
The 73-year-old has been subjected to anti-social behaviour in recent weeks, with youngsters banging on her bedroom window in the early hours of the morning and smashing plant pots in her garden.
Officers got their heads together with community-spirited residents before contacting Mears, the company responsible for the maintenance of Livin-owned properties, who provided panelling for a new fence.
And within 24 hours the new fence was up, protecting part of her bungalow from potential anti-social problems.
Local bobbies even mucked in to paint it, and Mrs Hillerby told Aycliffe Today: “It’s absolutely fantastic, I’m over the moon with it.
“Everyone has been so helpful and kind. I’ve been quite surprised, everyone has been fantastic.”
Martin Carter was one of the residents who raised concerns for Mrs Hillerby.
He said: “We spoke to the police at the PACT meeting, they got Mears involved and now we’ve got this fence up, which is great.
“We’re trying our best to create a better area. Some of us have been here 40 years, and we want to keep it that way.”
PCSO Mike Welch said: “The lady is very vulnerable. She actually wouldn’t phone us because she felt she was wasting our time, so we’ve been working with her to reassure her that’s what we’re here for.
“We have good numbers at our PACT meetings in this area, it’s all about sharing information – they came up with a relatively minor problem which is quite easily solved.”
Mears’ customer care officer Tracey Wilson added: “We said we’d help straight away.
“We’ll always try to help when we can, it’s just nice that everyone has done their bit.”
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