Race hate crimes have increased in Southend by more than half over the last four years.

Last year, there were 192 racial hate incidents across the Southend district – up 64 per cent from the 117 incidents recorded in 2010.

However, just 55 of the crimes were committed against a person rather than a house or vehicle.

Some 81 of the incidents occurred in the central neighbourhood, encompassing the Victora, Milton and Kursaal wards, while the Leigh and Chalkwell wards experienced the least incidents – just 13.

Figures obtained from Essex Police through a Freedom of Information request also suggests that race hate crimes are more frequent in Blenheim than Southchurch.

The number of these types of incidents has steadily increased over the years in Southend – with 150 in 2012 and 168 in 2013.

The trend follows the picture in Essex as over the past four years, the force has seen race hate crimes increase by a third.

Chief Insp Simon Anslow, district commander, said the rise could have come from the police proactively encouraging race hate crimes to be reported.

He said: “The frustration is with these figures is that you never really know why there has been an increase or decrease. Having put so much effort into making it easier for people to tell us and encouraging people to tell us, the natural thing to happen is for more people to tell us.”

On Canvey, the amount of hate crime incidents has remained steady over the last five years – there were 33 in 2010, 21 in 2011, 31 in 2012, 27 in 2013 and 30 in 2014.

Basildon saw 166 race hate crimes reported in 2014 – a 19 per cent increase since 2010, when 139 incidents were recorded.