South Shields: 'Distressing but unsurprising' hate crime spike sparks fresh safety concerns
Concerns have been raised about a spike in hate crime reports in parts of South Shields, with the majority “relating to race.”
The figures were discussed at the latest meeting of the Riverside Community Area Forum (CAF), one of five council committees which cover different areas of South Tyneside.
Crime statistics are regularly presented to the CAFs, with Riverside CAF covering several electoral wards in South Shields including Beacon and Bents, West Park, Simonside and Rekendyke and Westoe.
In the eight-week period up until September 11, 2025, there was a six per cent increase in “overall crime” incidents in the CAF area with 1,700 reports, up from 1,604 incidents reported the previous eight-week period.
It was figures about hate crime which sparked concern, with the latest data recording 22 hate crimes over an eight-week period, an increase from nine hate crimes recorded in the previous eight weeks.
A report to councillors said the 22 incidents in the Riverside CAF area included 16 “relating to race”, four incidents “relating to disability”, one incident “relating to someone’s gender” and one “faith”.
The report noted that “a hate crime marker will be added to a crime when a victim or witness involved believes the offence was motivated by prejudice of a protected characteristic”.
It was also noted that five “racial related hate crimes” were recorded at the South Shields Interchange and that “the victims in these cases are predominantly employees at the interchange”.
Police said that work is ongoing with “Project Shield and regulartransport meetings to identify repeat offenders and safeguard staff where possible.”
Councillor David Francis, Green Party representative for Beacon and Bents, raised concerns about the increase in hate crime, referenced wider political factors, and asked what police were doing to protect people.
“I think it’s really positive that we’re separating out hate crime [in the police update], obviously that was a request to the CAF two or three meetings ago, but it’s distressing and yet unsurprising to see that there’s been a spike since the last meeting,” he said.
“Although the numbers are small, you could say that 22 is still 22 too many, I think that represents a 144 per cent increase since the last meeting.
“Although it says that five of those were incidents at the interchange, that means that the vast majority are presumably out in the community.
“It’s just really disheartening to see that but maybe unsurprising given the context of what’s going on elsewhere in the country as well.
“I’m just keen to make sure that we do as much as we can as elected members and as the council to make sure that everybody feels safe and that they belong in our community.”
The comments were made at the Riverside CAF on Tuesday (September 16, 2025) at South Shields Town Hall.
Sergeant Tom Strawbridge of Northumbria Police, responding, said police looked at hate crime incident figures every day and that those affected receive call backs or visits from the neighbourhood team with safeguarding support.
“Across the country […] obviously it’s in the news what’s going on and we’re trying to make sure that isn’t happening in South Tyneside,” he said.
“We haven’t seen the issues we have had in other areas luckily and that’s what we’re trying to get on top of now […] if anyone has got any concerns just feed back to ourselves and if anyone needs to be spoken to we’re happy to go and provide that reassurance.”
Cllr Francis also raised concerns about “far-right stickers” that were “starting to appear more and more” and asked if there was an approach to dealing with this locally.
Sgt Strawbridge said that if relevant stickers were reported, such as stickers on lampposts, they could be retrieved and given to the force’s intelligence department who would see if it’s a “national thing or something that is happening locally”.
“That creates that intelligence picture of where they are coming from and the messages behind them,” he said.
Councillors also heard that such stickers were not an issue in South Shields presently but that if the stickers did start to “come back”, police would focus on them.