Teessiders ‘Deserve to Feel Safe’ After Crash and Fire Deaths – BBC News
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People deserve to ‘feel safe’ after crash and fire
Image source: Supplied
Image caption: Natalie McDonald and her niece Valentina Foster died in a house fire on Wednesday
By Jason Arunn Murugesu
North East and Cumbria
Published 27 August 2026, 08:52 BST
Updated 2 hours ago
People living in a town where a car crash and a house fire have left nine people dead deserve to "feel safe in their own homes", the local council leader has said.
Alec Brown’s comments came in response to the deaths of seven people, including two police officers, in a crash at South Bank near Middlesbrough on Saturday, followed by a house fire in Grangetown on Wednesday that claimed the lives of a woman aged 34 and a seven-year-old girl.
Brown told Radio 4’s Today programme he would be meeting with councillors, police, and social housing providers on Friday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said "all of the support will be provided to get to the heart of what has happened."
Brown, the Labour leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said he understood people from the area might feel "left behind."
"I’m from an estate, from the same ilk," he said. "You live around people that may be suffering poverty or other social issues, it can be that uniform sort of consciousness that ‘we’re left behind’. But I can assure the people of Grangetown and South Bank they’re as important to me as people from any other estate in the borough."
A group of local Labour MPs, including Anna Turley, Luke Myer, Andy McDonald, Jonathan Brash, and Chris McDonald, issued a joint statement, saying their communities deserved to "feel safe." They welcomed the help of other police forces during the past week but called for more long-term support to protect residents who had expressed "safety concerns" for "far too long."
Myer said the current national funding formulas for the police and fire service did not take into account the "seriousness" of the crime people in Teesside faced. "We essentially have a metropolitan style of crime and also risk of fire but with a sort of rural-style funding," he said. "This is why we need to see a real overhaul of the funding formula."
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told the Press Association the events in and around Middlesbrough over the last week were "deeply worrying."
Cleveland Police, who have made several arrests in connection with the recent deaths, are also investigating a crash which saw a vehicle hit the wall of a house in South Bank in the early hours of Thursday morning. The property had been empty at the time, and the force said it had "not yet been confirmed whether this incident is linked to wider organised crime."
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On Saturday, PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough died when a Volkswagen Passat, which was going the wrong way on the A66 at South Bank, hit their vehicle. The five young men in the Volkswagen also died.
Police said 17 people, aged between 18 and 61, had been arrested across Teesside as part of an investigation into the lead-up to the crash.
