Last modified on Fri 23 Apr 2021 08.04 EDT Hartlepool police station stands like an empty vessel in the heart of the town centre. Its cells have not held a single suspect since 2019, when they were closed to save money. The magistrates court was mothballed two years earlier. On the other side of town, the hospital has waved goodbye to its maternity ward and accident and emergency units in the past 10 years. The cuts meant that for the first time in decades no babies were born with Hartlepool on their birth certificates. Anyone needing life-saving treatment had to be sent 15 miles out of town. Local criminals have to be taken to Middlesbrough for justice.