Students pitch in to help police deal with nuisance vehicles.

Officers were delighted to attend the Northern School of Art last week (Thursday 8^th February) to see some of the talented graphic design students pitch their proposals for a new Operation Endurance logo, as well as posters for a “No Face, No Fuel” campaign.

The young people showed their artistic creations to Sergeant Chris Turner, Acting Sergeant John Eeles and our road safety campaign officer, Nicola Bowman, giving the students a real-world experience of presenting their ideas. All the presentations were excellent but after much deliberation first year student Niamh was chosen as winner.

Sgt Turner said: “We set the students away with this task a few weeks ago and they really threw themselves into the challenge and created some excellent designs. Operation Endurance is one of our longest running and most important campaigns against nuisance or criminal use of vehicles.

“It’s time for a modernised logo and new campaigns that represent the challenges of today. Niamh’s designs really stood out to the panel, and we look forward to working with her and our partners to finalise the design and launch the campaign in the coming weeks.

“We will be working with fuel retailers across the force area to ask them to pledge not to sell fuel to anyone who covers their face when trying to buy petrol or diesel. If the retailers can’t see that the buyer is over 16, then they won’t be served fuel."

Acting Sgt Eeles added: “We know tackling nuisance vehicles is a priority for our communities and we’re determined to let them know that we are taking action – whether that’s preventatively by “No Face No Fuel” and through our days of action, or by responding to residents’ information on where these vehicles are being stored and used.

“We’ll continue to work with our partner agencies and local people and use all resources available to us to deal with nuisance and illegal vehicles.”

If you have information about nuisance or illegal off-road bikes, you can report via the Cleveland Police website, the COPA app or by phoning 101.

If you don’t want to speak to police you can pass information anonymously to www.crimestoppers-uk.org or phone them on 0800 555 111.