Meeting called on preventing further disorder and tackling 'rise in Islamophobia' after 'devastating events' in Sunderland

Seven people have been charged and a total of 16 arrested after shocking scenes on the night of August 2, which left police officers in hospital and significant damage to city centre.

All councillors have now been summoned to a meeting at City Hall on Wednesday, August 14.

How Sunderland City Council can best work with Northumbria Police to prevent further disorder and hold those responsible to account will be top of the agenda, said Councillor Kelly Chequer, deputy leader, who issued the invitation to the meeting.

Councillor Chequer said her ruling Labour Group had also placed a request in the agenda for council to work with faith groups from across the city to tackle ‘rising Islamophobia’ and to involve people from all backgrounds in the shaping of a city-wide cohesion strategy.

 “Following the devastating events which unfolded over the weekend, we have called an extraordinary council meeting to discuss how we can work more pro-actively with our communities and the emergency services to prevent future incidents from taking place and hold those responsible to account for their actions,” she said. 

“Over the last 48 hours, we have met with multiple faith groups from across the city who have told us first-hand how many members of their communities have been left afraid to leave their homes following the events.

 “These are people, who on the majority, were born and raised in this city, have raised families here and have made homes for life here, but have been left feeling as though they are no longer welcome.”

She added: “We have met with representatives from Northumbria Police, whose heroic staff were forced to go out into the midst of these senseless riots and face a barrage of not only verbal abuse, but physical abuse in the form of missiles.

“These are the same heroes who helped save countless lives in Southport last week. To think, we are now talking about the actions of a few far-right thugs instead of fondly remembering those who lost their lives in that attack, is an insult to their memory.

“That’s why we’re offering councillors of all political persuasion to join us in helping shape a cohesion strategy which - working with a cross-section of faith groups – will help our city emerge from this disaster better, stronger and closer to one another than ever before.

“We will also discuss the rising threat of Islamophobia, how we work with our hero emergency services staff to better support them in the event of future scenarios and demonstrate to the world that, what we all saw on Friday, does not reflection the people of Sunderland, but simply a small minority of Far Right thugs.”