Positive community spirit in Hartlepool a year on since riots
There was violent disorder on the streets of Hartlepool 12 months ago
We are hearing how Hartlepool has 'moved on' and there is so much positivity since we saw the violent disorder on the streets there 12-months ago.
Hundreds of people took to the streets causing violent disorder a year ago today, with shops, homes, and cars being vandalised.
Tahir Selby, Imam at Nasir Mosque in Hartlepool, said: "As far as we're concerned, we've forgotten about the riots that happened. It was unfortunate and we're moving on. Everything's continuing and it's very positive. All the negativity that happened, as far as we're concerned, that was in the past and we're just carrying on and looking forward to the future. It seems to us that everything's continued as normal. People just tried to get past this bad incident.
"It's been fine. There's been no problems and people are working together. It was a shock in the first place because for us we were having no problems with local people, with the community and in fact, we were very well embedded into the community so having the riots in the first place was a surprise.
"There was a concern about the effects it would have but I think everything seems fine, everything's gone back to normal and there's been no problems at all that I'm aware of. I'm part of a few committees and again, I don't see any problems there. Everything's just moving on as it was.
"We saw obviously when the riots happened, the reaction from the people were that they were totally against what happened, surprised and offended that this had happened in Hartlepool. They showed a great deal of support to our community and there was that fundraiser that was set up.
"More importantly for me, there were over a thousand messages, all positive, there wasn't one negative, of the local people giving support to the mosque, people coming here giving flowers, chocolates and showing again support. We held a function which was called 'Love Hartlepool.'
"We gave back the money that was donated, £16,000, which we gave to 10 different charities. All local charities, all in Hartlepool and that was very, very positive and then from there, we've continued to have our different functions, school visits as usual.
"We ask the schools to come here so they can have a look around the mosque and that's continued. We've had regular school visits, we've had the open day as usual and we had an eid celebration where people came to attend that and the next one is the local charity walk which we have every year and again, people were showing interest in that.
"We've been trying to build this good relationship with the community and be part of the community. I think people understand that we're very much a part of Hartlepool and represent greatly what Hartlepool is trying to do, working with the community and they're working with us. We're getting lots of support from them and we're trying to support them."