The crowd fell silent as the pipers played Amazing Grace. It was just after 11am on Wednesday when the funeral cortege of Cleveland police officer Matthew Blades (37) reached his local Catholic church in Hartlepool, on the coast of northeast England.The roof of the hearse bore a white floral arrangement, “Dad”. He had two children.An hour later, 25km away in the Middlesbrough suburb of Acklam, a hearse drawn by two black horses wearing deep blue plumes pulled up outside the crematorium chapel of St Bede’s. It carried the body of Cole Worthy (17).Some of the younger mourners at his funeral also wore blue, the same colour as the floral arrangement atop one of the black cars. It read “nephew”. Worthy’s devastated parents led his wider family and friends into the chapel.Two funerals in the same region, two outpourings of grief, both linked by a single catastrophe that has shocked Britain.Blades and his colleague PC Tom Clough (38), whose funeral was on Thursday, were killed in a crash three weeks ago on the A66 dual carriageway near Middlesbrough. Their car was hit head-on by a Volkswagen Passat speeding the wrong way down their lane.Police officers Tom Clough and Matthew Blades, who died when a car going in the wrong direction hit their police car on the A66 near Middlesbrough on August 22nd. Photograph: Cleveland Police/PA Wire A floral tribute on top of the hearse at the funeral of policeman Matthew Blades. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA wire In the Passat were Worthy and four other males: Theo Rae (17), Makai Saddington (18), Michael Robert Cahill (23) and Jakub Matusiak (23). Minutes before, they had been chased by another police car as they careered around Middlesbrough in the early hours. They were searching for the car of a rival gang that had just rammed Cole’s father’s house.Seven lives were snuffed out in an instant in a struggling region that is also in the grip of an organised crime wave. Many locals say they are frightened, while community leaders appeal for calm and insist there is much more to their community than crime.Jakub Matusiak, Makai Saddington, Theo Rae, Michael Robert Cahill and Cole Worthy, who died in the crash. Photograph: Social media The cortege for Jacob Matusiak, one of the five young men who died, arriving at St John's Church, Middlesbrough. Photograph: PA Wire “My area is a good place apart from the 2 per cent of people who do wrong,” said Ross Kerr-Morgan, who helps to run an amateur boxing club in Grangetown, one of the neighbourhoods most affected by social and crime issues.Lynn Pallister, a local Labour councillor who received an MBE six months ago for her community efforts, says the area needs more leaders and, more importantly, more resources.“We’ve got challenges. It’s a lot more violent now than it used to be. But we have also got a strong community,” she said. “People will come together when there is a challenge to be met. Unfortunately it has taken the deaths of so many people to bring attention on to those who need it. For far too long, we have been under-funded.”There may be a strong sense of community spirit, but gang culture still openly abounds in the area. At nightfall in Grangetown on Wednesday, The Irish Times saw masked young men on the streets, although Pallister says there are fewer than usual around currently due to a police surge.“I haven’t seen a quad in ages, but that won’t last long. They’ll be back.”Graffitied tributes to the dead young men read “fly high boys” and “f**k TMF”, a reference to “the Middlesbrough feds”, the police.Several houses have been rammed in recent months in gang disputes, including one that was virtually demolished with a stolen tractor. Cleveland Police, said to be one of the most under-funded forces in Britain, has struggled to cope.A house owned by Cole Worthy's father was rammed shortly before the teenager died in a wrong-way crash. Photograph: Mark Paul An extra 200 officers have been drafted in from outside forces since the August 22nd crash to help Cleveland Police. Photograph: Andy Commins/PA Wire League tables of police funding show Cleveland’s force near the bottom. Middlesbrough is officially ranked the most crime-ridden city in Britain outside London. The force deals with 40 per cent more crimes per officer than the UK average. According to a letter drafted by local politicians, it gets 35 per cent less funding per crime than the average police force.Meanwhile, Grangetown and nearby South Bank, another deprived area, as well as the site of the crash, sit outside of Middlesbrough’s council area. They are all within Redcar and Cleveland Council, which is much more starved of resources. Pallister says its allocation from a local shared health budget is also depleted.“It’s been going on for years,” she said. “We’ve never had the resources to tackle the underlying issues such as drugs, mental health and poverty.”Wherever those problems fester, it begets crime among young men and boys.Worthy’s funeral notice this week pictured a baby-faced teen in shorts, trainers and a t-shirt in trademark blue. He also wore what seemed to be an expensive gold watch. Worthy had seven criminal convictions. The other dead 17-year-old, Rae, had 21.Cole Worthy was killed in the wrong-way crash near Middlesbrough on August 22nd In all, four of the five occupants of the Passat that caused the crash had rap sheets for offences including drugs, theft and assaulting police. Only Cahill had a clean record.While The Irish Times discreetly observed Worthy being brought to the crematorium on Wednesday at noon, a drone buzzed overhead. It was clearly being used to observe the young man’s funeral, dipping and manoeuvring to capture different angles.Just up the road in the carpark of a Tesco Express on a nearby roundabout, I saw police in a van watching a laptop screen, while the service continued. There were two vans of officers discreetly parked there, with more in unmarked cars.Acklam cemetery and crematorium, run by Middlesbrough Council, organised private security guards, who showed up an hour before the funeral. Acklam is one of the more affluent parts of the town, but tensions are high across the whole area.An extra 200 officers have been drafted in from outside forces since the August 22nd crash to help Cleveland Police. Dozens have been arrested since the tragedy in a crackdown on organised crime. Cole Worthy’s father was arrested for an alleged assault at his son’s funeral on Wednesday.Sadly for the local area, the horrific A66 crash was not the last of its suffering.Police are also investigating a fatal house fire in Grangetown, near Middlesbrough four days after the crash that is suspected to be linked to organised crime.Valentina Foster (7) and her aunt Natalie McDonald (34) both perished in the flames. Roads around the torched shell of a house were closed when The Irish Times visited on Wednesday night. A security van was parked nearby, flowers piled up against a wall.A house fire in Grangetown, near Middlesbrough, killed Valentina Foster (7) and her aunt Natalie McDonald. Photograph: Andy Commins/PA Wire The fire is no longer thought to be directly linked to the A66 incident, but it may be connected to other disputes. Both incidents are part of the same wave of fear and sadness sweeping through this doughty area, where local pride is being challenged.“People don’t feel safe in Middlesbrough centre,” said Callum, a worker in his early 20s who has lived in the area all his life. He blamed some of its woes on the closure of a nearby steelworks in Redcar a decade ago. At least 2,000 jobs were lost then.Pallister goes back even further. She traces the decline in local steel, chemical and shipbuilding back to the late 1980s and 90s.“There must be 20,000 jobs gone,” she said. “Each one of those companies that went also used to take on thousands of apprentices over the years. The young boys needed those jobs. It all started back then. Now, they need more role models.”Middlesbrough town centre is very obviously economically depressed. Its retail core is full of shuttered businesses. The heart of the commercial district is dominated by a huge, derelict House of Fraser outlet, and an abandoned Debenhams.A shuttered House of Fraser outlet in Middlesbrough. Photograph: Mark Paul Middlesbrough's retail core is full of shuttered businesses. Photograph: Mark Paul Both chains have been shut for years. A core Middlesbrough retail street, it is blighted by mass vacancies at its northern end. It was virtually deserted by 5pm on two nights this week. After dark, the centre becomes a crime hotspot.An Irish industrial worker staying in a local hotel while in Middlesbrough for training told The Irish Times he visited a pub with a colleague on one of the town’s best known streets the other night. With no explanation, the bouncers asked them to leave.“When we got outside, a Mercedes pulled up. There was a guy in black, all jewelled up, who was clearly a kingpin of some kind. He asked us to go for a drive with him around the corner, to chat about something. We left. It’s all gangs here.”Pallister and other community leaders are organising a fund-raising event for the funerals of the fire victims next week. Locals will be encouraged to get sponsorship for a cycling challenge in a local gym.“We’re going to get the community to cycle a million metres. We’ll pull together, but everything is still so sad. We need resources. Central government are listening, but the jury is out on whether they really get the message.”Flower tributes near the scene of the A66 crash that killed seven people on August 22nd. Photograph: Mark Paul Back on the A66, near the site of the crash, the many bunches of flowers laid in honour of all the victims are beginning to wilt.Pallister and others are determined, however, that the community will grow.“I get frustrated when we are deprived of things, but I am the sort of person who always has hope.”