(Image: LDRS)
After 25 years of alleygates in Stockton, are they still a crime deterrent which has stood the test of time, or have times changed?
A Stockton Council committee has launched a review of alleygates 25 years after the first pilot to install them in three streets in Newtown to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.
Now, there are 327 alleygates on council-owned or adopted land in the borough.
Four of Stockton’s wards have by far the most alleygates – 116 in Ropner, 82 in Mandale and Victoria and 61 in each of Newtown and Stockton town centre. Legislation introduced “gating orders” in 2005 then allowed the installation of gates to restrict access to alleyways under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
However an alleygate fell on a resident injuring them on Lawrence Street in April 2024, the council’s community safety select committee has been told.
Councillors have been told hinges have been failing and it would cost over £2m to replace all the gates.
Richard Bradford, the council’s community safety services manager, said: “Unfortunately one of the hinge mechanisms on the gate failed, which subsequently meant the gate fell. This resulted in an injury to a resident.
“Following the accident an investigation of all alleygates was assessed. Professional engineers inspected the alleygates and provided an engineering recommendation to upgrade the hinge mechanism system.
“At the time £70,000 was allocated to undertake emergency upgrades and the gates are currently assessed on a six-month rota.”
The council received 28 reports over alleygate issues in 2023, rising to 226 in 2024, 126 in 2025 and 70 so far this year, while maintenance spending rose from £9,000 in 2023-4 to £43,000 in 2025-6.
Mr Bradford added: “The cost of replacement of one of the sets of gates are estimated by the manufacturers as between £5,000 and £7,000. A total replacement of all alleygates within the scheme would be in excess of £2m.”
He laid out possible future options, to make no changes risking further failures and injuries, full or partial replacement, removal, look at other measures or consulting with residents. He said budget and political resistance were among considerations to take into account.
He added: “Maybe in 2026 there are other options out there we could look at. There’s the option there for consultation to gather modern data about what residents think and feel.”
He said the last data on how effective alleygates were dated back to 2005, when they were credited for a substantial decrease in crime, including a 43 per ent reduction in home burglaries, a 64 per cent drop in deliberate fires, 58 per cent in anti-social behaviour and 52 per cent in fly-tipping.
Community feedback was last taken in 2004 when most people felt safer and that burglaries, loitering, vandalism and flytipping had fallen with the gates.
Ropner ward member Councillor Shakeel Hussain suggested keeping the gates and replacing moving parts: “The structures themselves, they’ll stay there for 100 years. It’s the moving bits that go, like the locks, people tamper with the locks and hinges.
Councillor Shakeel Hussain, Conservative member for Ropner ward on Stockton Council. Picture: Stockton Council.
“I think they’re an eyesore. I absolutely hate the things.
“I grew up in Oxbridge, we’ve got 116 which is the highest number in the whole of Stockton. They do the job in certain aspects but we have issues in certain parts where people climb over them, damage the locks.
“They are a deterrent, they’re an eyesore to look at. The streets are really nice, tidy and clean and then you have these big black gates.
“It makes it look like a prison. It’d be much better if it was open, but I suppose they were put in for a reason because of the issues we were having.
“It’d be really get to get up-to-date figures to see where we are at this day and age, to see if there’s anything out there that’s better, with technology coming forward.”
John Angus, principal projects officer for regeneration and inclusive growth, said posts could also be corroded by dogs urinating on them.
He said: “Back then there were high instances of rear-entry burglaries, fly-tipping and associated arson in the alleygates, which is why the council instigated the programme.
“Have things changed and moved on now? That’s a question that could be looked at.”
He said the gates picked were “the gold standard” to tackle crime: “They’re a deterrent. They’re not a be-all and end-all to stop activities. They are now more regularly checked.”
Director of neighbourhoods Kellie Hopkins said: “I remember from back in the day they were hugely popular with residents and, particularly in your ward, it really put paid to a lot of the sex worker activity that was happening in some of the back streets. To be honest, they’ve really stood the test of time.
“But times have changed. What’s residents’ view about them? Have they served their purpose?
“We do have significant dumping issues in the traditional street terraces, and removing those gates, we might solve a problem, we might cause another one. There’s lots of nuance to this debate, I think it’s going to be a bit of a tough call.”
Cllr Lynn Hall, who represents Hartburn, said: “Many of them were put in because of rat runs. They did have a safety value as well.
Councillor Lynn Hall, Conservative member for Hartburn on Stockton Council. Picture: Stockton Council.
“But I quite agree, they don’t look very nice and things have moved on. We can’t have them broken, we’ve got to keep them repaired.”
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Norton South Cllr Bob Cook said fly-tipping was one of the main reasons for installing the gates: “I think the thing we probably need to do now is get some sort of inspection regime to make sure nobody gets injured in the future. What we could do if try to ask residents what their thoughts are.
“I think they still serve a purpose. I think people would probably still want them, it does have that bit of protection… that purpose is better than the looks of them.”
Committee chair Cllr Ann McCoy said: “It’s one of these difficult things. If you take them all away and the crime figures go up, people will be asking for them to be put back. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”