Extra community work in wake of Brexit vote

In Thames Valley, police say there has been a slight increase in hate crimes since last week’s referendum and National Front stickers have appeared on lampposts.

Raj Khan, Bucks County Councillor for Aylesbury north, has not heard of any reported hate crimes among the Asian community.

But he is working to reassure the public that resources are in place.

He said: “We are doing a lot of outreach work because it’s quite a fearful time but we have had a very good response.

“The far right extremists seem to be in a position of dominance. It’s fearful times, it really is, but we are a British community and we are all in it together.

“If you start cherry-picking people, it will only weaken our resources and our community.”

Niknam Hussain, former town mayor and former shadow cabinet member for children’s services at Bucks County Council, said: “So far, so good. I haven’t heard of any incidents. We are a bit different here (in Aylesbury) because we are an integrated community.”

Asked about the National Front stickers which have appeared on lampposts, he said: “There seems to be a small core of the extreme right wing here. But the police are aware .

“We’ve seen this kind of thing before. We’re just asking the community to be careful.”

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: “There has been a very slight increase in the number of non-recordable hate crimes reported since the Brexit vote. For example, in the past 24 hours, there have been a total of 14 non-recordable crimes reported to us, while the usual average for a 24-hour period is between six and eight. Our officers from various Local Policing Areas say that they are not experiencing any changes in community feeling since the vote.”

Last week, Britain chose to leave the EU and Aylesbury Vale was no exception.

A total of 53,956 people in the vale voted to leave with a turn out of 78.4%. 52,877 from the Vale voted to stay.