Date: 22/11/2007
High Peak Borough Council is committed to ensuring good relations between all people in the Borough, and has an active role in monitoring hate incidents.
Imagine that you are out shopping in one of our local towns and you choose to use your car and park in one of the local car parks where you are faced with offensive graffiti, either racist or homophobic. What would you do?
Or, imagine you visit your local take away to pick up an order and are faced by a gang of youths shouting taunts and racist comments at the takeaway owners, who are serving you. What can you do?
In these situations you can:
These are examples of hate incidents taken from reports received by High Peak Borough Council. Fortunately, they are relatively rare within the Borough but are offensive and affect the quality of life of residents and may be under-reported.
A hate incident is any incident committed against a person or their property that the victim or any other person believes is motivated by the offender's hate against people because of their race, sexuality, disability, religion, gender or age.
The Council has a procedure for recording such incidents and members of the public can report them through the call centre on 0845 129 77 77 or 01298 28400. Details of the procedure for dealing with these incidents can be found on the Council's website: www.highpeak.gov.uk
Emily Thrane, Executive Member responsible for Corporate Services, said "No one should have to tolerate any form of abuse or attack that is motivated by hatred due to their race, gender, sexuality, disability, age or religion."
She added: "If we don't receive reports on these incidents then we cannot help to resolve them. We will treat them in confidence and only refer them on to other agencies with permission of the victim. The Council also works closely with Derbyshire Police when a crime may have been committed. Help us to eliminate these incidents by reporting them."