Barbed wire and looking over your shoulder: Middlesbrough residents fearful after riots
Parliament Road in Middlesbrough feels a world away from the establishment it shares a name with, but for one Sunday in August, the terraced streets of central Middlesbrough were at the centre of national attention.
That afternoon, what was advertised as a peaceful protest, turned into a riot, with hundreds of people, many of them wearing masks, targeting livelihoods and businesses in one of the city’s most diverse areas.
They lit fires, smashed windows and clashed with the police.
Hundreds of arrests have been made and dozens of those people sentenced, but months on, the impact of that day can still be felt.
Not just in the cracked windows and debris still on the street, but in the deeper fabric of a community who are concerned about not just those events, but bigger issues they feel have blighted the area for far longer.
One of those people is Pervaz Akhtar, who has lived in Middlesbrough for more than three decades and runs a phone shop on Parliament Road.
After having his stock burgled on more than half a dozen occasions in two years, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Mr Akhtar protects his shop with razor wire
Every evening he spends more than half an hour unrolling a ring of razor wire, to cover both the shop floor and the counters.
“I’ve got the police alarm, I’ve got the CCTV cameras, I’ve got the shutters, everything.”
“But I think this is the best thing to do,” he says, gesturing to the razor wire, which he has to fold into wooden crates every morning while wearing protective gloves.
That process, which has become a daily routine, takes him around 40 minutes.
‘I’m depressed’
Rioters jumping on Mr Akhtar’s car
Even with a deterrent in place however, he still feels unsafe and is now considering leaving the business altogether.
“I just put the shop up for sale now,” he says.
“I think, before I’m not giving up, but (now) I’m depressed, because all the time I never know when somebody will come and show me a knife and take the phones away.”
Mr Akhtar’s discontent only deepened this summer when his home and car were damaged by rioters.
In footage he shared with Sky News, a group of young men climbed on top of the vehicle, smashing the windscreen.
The shop owner says his whole family were impacted by what happened.
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His wife, who is a carer, needed to find another vehicle to get to work, while one of his two young sons has been left fearful about the prospect of more disorder.
“About one week later, he saw about 10, 12 people playing in the park, he ran back and said, ‘Dad, they’re coming again’,” recalls Mr Akhtar.
Another person living in the area and impacted by the disorder that day is John, who moved to Middlesbrough from Ghana and shares a house with three others from the West African country.
John’s window is still boarded up
More than two months on, the front window of the property was still boarded up.
“I was quite surprised to see that there could be damage, because I was expecting a peaceful demonstration,” he says before sighing and looking at the front of the house.
“Whilst that is not in the original state, for sure that will frustrate me, but I have hope in the police department that once they said it is going to be fixed, it will be fixed,” he adds.
Once the damage is repaired, there are deeper community issues that will linger.
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Streets Ahead For Information are a charity who describe themselves as a “one stop shop” for people who live in the area, offering vital services for residents in one of Middlesbrough’s most diverse communities.
Twice a week, they organise a low-cost food shop, which is always in high demand.
Residents line up outside, before filling their baskets with items like eggs, fruit and vegetables, largely costing under £1 each.
The people the charity support are from a range of backgrounds. Some are asylum seekers, others have lived in the area for years.
Many of them still have concerns about the disorder that spilled onto Parliament Road.
One woman from Romania, called Diana, says she was away on holiday at the time, but watched the scenes on TikTok.
Now she has concerns about the place she and her children call home. “I look all the time on my back,” she says.
For Streets Ahead and the operations manager Kim May, the work in the coming weeks and months will be twofold.
The charity is still advising people who had their homes and livelihoods impacted by the riots, but she is hoping the uncomfortable spotlight placed on Middlesbrough will encourage more people to support a voluntary sector working to solve people’s day to day problems, many of which she sees first hand.
“It’s the community issues that are more important. We can fix windows, we can fix cars, we can do that. But fixing people’s state of mind is a completely different thing,” she says.
“We have a lot of mental health issues in our area. We need to get the hospital sorted out. We need to take care of poverty in these areas, we need to take care of health in these areas.
“It’s a much wider range of things than people actually imagined it could ever be. And for some people, it’s about having somebody to see them, to listen to them.”
Hundreds of people affected by the Manchester Arena bombing cannot continue legal action against MI5, judges have ruled.
More than 300 people, including survivors and those bereaved by the 2017 attack at an Ariana Grande concert, brought a case to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), claiming failures to take “appropriate measures” to prevent the incident infringed their human rights.
In a ruling on Friday, Lord Justice Singh and Mrs Justice Farbey said the cases could not proceed as they were brought too late.
Lord Justice Singh said: “We are particularly conscious of the importance of the rights concerned… We are also conscious of the horrendous impact of the atrocity on the claimants and their families.
“Any reasonable person would have sympathy for them.
“The grief and trauma which they have suffered, particularly where young children were killed, is almost unimaginable.
“Nevertheless, we have reached the conclusion that, in all the circumstances, it would not be equitable to permit the claims to proceed.”
File pic: AP
Lord Justice Singh acknowledged that while the tribunal “readily understand” why the legal claims were not filed until after the final report from the inquiry into the attack, “real expedition” was needed at that point.
The judge added: “We bear in mind the other matters that had to be investigated and arrangements which had to be put in place but, in our view, the filing of the proceedings was not given the priority which, assessed objectively, it should have been.”
Had the claims gone ahead, the judge noted the security services would have needed to “divert time and resources to defending these proceedings rather than their core responsibilities” – which includes preventing future attacks.
Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured hundreds when he detonated a rucksack bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande show at Manchester Arena on 22 May 2017.
Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi
Hudgell Solicitors, Slater & Gordon and Broudie Jackson Canter, three of the law firms representing complainants affected, said the ruling was “extremely disappointing” for their clients.
In a statement, the firms said: “Ever since the attack in May 2017, our clients have had to endure continued delays but have done so with great patience and understanding in the hope that by allowing all legal processes to be fully explored, transparency and justice would be achieved.
“It took almost six years for the failings of MI5 to be revealed, confirmed when the inquiry chair published his volume three findings in March 2023, in which he said MI5 had missed a ‘significant opportunity’ to prevent the attack.
“This report concluded that within this six-year period, the security service corporate witnesses X and J gave evidence on oath that had presented an inaccurate picture, and the same inaccurate picture had been presented to Lord Anderson when he compiled his report in December 2017.”
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The law firms said following these findings, their clients believed the IPT would “provide the route to the formal vindication of their human rights”.
The firms added: “We are disappointed that time is one of the reasons now being used against them to prevent their claims progressing. Seven years have now passed since the atrocity in May 2017 – six years of that seven-year delay was caused by MI5.
“This judgment certainly doesn’t exonerate MI5. There were failings by MI5 and multiple other parties leading up to and on the actual evening of 22 May 2017 and collectively we continue to support our clients in their fight for full accountability and justice.”
Police with members of the public after the attack. Pic: PA
The inquiry into the bombing found it might have been prevented if MI5 had acted on key intelligence received in the months before the attack.
The agency’s director-general, Ken McCallum, expressed deep regret that such intelligence was not obtained.
Two pieces of information about Abedi were assessed at the time by the security service to not relate to terrorism.
But inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders said, having heard from MI5 witnesses at the hearings, he considered that did not present an “accurate picture”.
Lawyers for those affected previously said the inquiry found there was a “real possibility” that one of the pieces of intelligence could have obtained information which may have led to actions preventing the attack.
And at the hearing earlier this month, Pete Weatherby KC, for those affected, described the IPT claims as “the next step” in vindication for his clients after the inquiry’s findings.
Many areas of Britain faced frosty and icy conditions this morning ahead of the arrival of Storm Bert tomorrow.
The Met Office said it expects the storm to bring “heavy rain, strong winds and disruptive snow to parts of the UK through the weekend” and potentially cause travel disruption and flooding.
Much of the UK experienced temperatures close to freezing last night, the Met Office said, with -6C (21.2F) recorded at Tulloch Bridge in Scotland.
Check the forecast in your area
Snowy conditions in the village of Goathland, North York Moors National Park. Pic: PA
Several yellow warnings for snow and ice were in place across the UK until 10am on Friday, while one covering parts of Scotland will remain in place until midday.
They came ahead of an amber warning for heavy snow and ice in place between 7am and 5pm on Saturday in central parts of Scotland.
The Met Office said 10-20cm of snow was likely on ground above 200m and there could be as much as 20-40cm on hills above 400m.
Several other yellow alerts for wind, rain and snow will also cover much of the UK.
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Met Office meteorologist Honor Criswick said: “Through into Friday… snow showers are set to continue mainly around coastal areas though once again still a few feeding inland at times.
“There will also still be plenty of autumnal sunshine. Still feeling cold though, particularly in those brisk winds – once again we’re only looking at highs of around 5C, slightly higher in the southwest around 7C.
“Across the north those temperatures struggling to move past 2-3C.
“As we head into Friday evening, a change is on its way as we introduce Storm Bert moving its way in from the Atlantic. So we’ll see clouds spilling in from the southwest with outbreaks of rain – heavy at times by the time we reach Saturday morning.”
A woman braves the snow in Aviemore, Scotland. Pic: Reuters
“Heavy” outbreaks of rain are likely throughout Saturday, “falling as snow” at times across parts of England and Scotland, Ms Criswick said.
More than 114 schools were shut in the Highland Council area on Thursday because of snow, almost 40 were shut in Aberdeenshire and 12 were closed in Moray.
In England, 89 schools were shut in Devon, 60 in Cornwall and 18 in Dorset, while in Wales 18 were closed in Denbighshire, 10 in Conwy and two in Wrexham.
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