Increase in racial abuse following Gosport protests and small boat arrival
The Deputy Leader of Gosport Council's telling us there's been an increase in racial abuse
The Deputy Leader of Gosport Council's telling us there's been an increase in racial abuse - following a surge of protests in the area over the past month.
It comes one month on from the first protest over a small boat of migrant's potential arrival - and two days after a vessel arrived at Gosport.
Cllr Lesley Meenaghan, Deputy Leader of Gosport Council's telling us there's been increased tensions in the area.
She said: "There's real concerns in Gosport because this is something we've been asking for a long time from the Home Office, and the Home Secretary, to really clarify for us, is this something you're intending? Is this going to become a landing place? Or a designated place? Because we don't want it.
"The egress and access are really poor and we haven't got the infrastructure, we haven't got the hospital, the children's services.
"Most of all, the problem we have at the moment is there's no clarity and there's a lot of uncertainty, and because there's uncertainty, it creates community tension."
Hampshire Police said around 350 people left Haslar Road at around 2am on Monday after a group of migrants were brought ashore by coastguard, lifeboat and border security staff.
The force had imposed conditions under the Public Order Act as well as powers prohibiting the wearing of face coverings.
Demonstrators had assembled near Haslar Marina where the atmosphere was mostly peaceful, though there were reports of flares being set off and some issues with police.
Cllr Meenaghan said that some members of the community are now experiencing racial abuse off the back of it, too.
She told us her message to members of the community who may be concerned about this.
She said: "We do have a really strong community partnership in Gosport, so we've worked with our community safety partners, our council, our police, our environmental health, to make sure that, in particular, our taxi drivers, who are in my ward, are looked after and heard.
"We make sure that trees are cut back for CCTV, they are visited by police.
"So what I would say is we need to make sure people feel safe in our community, but I'm also mindful that there's a lot of our community who feel unsafe, and that comes back to that lack of certainty."