THE number of hate incidents reported to the police in East Lothian rose by 17 per cent last year.

Police said there were 83 incidents reported in which people believed they had been abused because of their race, beliefs or sexuality across the county.

However, the number of incidents which were identified as crimes was 68 – a fall of just over eight per cent on the previous year.

Presenting Police Scotland’s annual report to East Lothian Council this week, Chief Superintendent Gill Imrie said the majority of hate incidents tended to involve young people being denied sales in shops.

She said: “Unfortunately the majority seem to relate to restricted products such as alcohol and cigarettes; some young people resort to this sort of behaviour.” The chief superintendent revealed just over two-thirds of hate crimes reported in East Lothian were race-related.

However, she said the county remained one of the safest places in Scotland to live and was becoming more tolerant.

She said: “I personally think we are seeing people behaving more considerately towards each other and that is a credit to the county.” During a meeting of East Lothian Council this week, Councillor Tim Day, administration spokesperson on community wellbeing, revealed the council plans to reintroduce a committee to specifically scrutinise police and fire rescue performance in the county.

Mr Day said he had always been “uncomfortable” with the decision not to have a separate committee to review the emergency services and criticised some police policies such as stop and search, which he said were out of place in the county.

He said: “We seem to have gone from Lothian and Borders policing with consent to a one-size-fits-all approach.

“We need to build a strong relationship with local police. That is why we are planning a new committee.” The council administration is expected to produce plans to set up the new committee after the summer recess.