A SHOP owner in Sutton-in-Craven has spoken out about his disgust after discovering an alleged racist comment directed at him on Facebook.

Jazz Singh, who owns the Londis store at 30-32 Main Street, recently found a Facebook page that was titled Bring Back Stevie Place ***** are Slack.

The page was referring to long-time former shop owner Stephen Place, who retired last year and who has condemned the Facebook comment.

The derogatory racist remark, which Mr Singh said had initially had been on the page, has since been removed and the page has been taken down altogether.

"Somebody started this race hate page on Facebook," explained Mr Singh. "When I saw the comment, I posted how disgusted I was.

"When you get somebody who starts a hate campaign you want stop it in its tracks."

Mr Singh, who has been at the Londis shop since Mr Place retired in September, is in the process of renovating his store to accommodate post office services, which will be transferred from the village's current post office later this year.

He said: "I've put in some good works and I've had a lot of people in the village supporting me."

Steve Place, who previously owned the shop for almost 30 years, said: "This is absolutely appalling behaviour, and we don't need those kind of comments from somebody who might call themselves a Suttoner. Sutton, by nature, is a racially tolerant village."

Geoff Crocker, an inspector for North Yorkshire Police, said: "We are treating it as a racially aggravated offence.

"Unfortunately the creators of the site used an insulting phrase in the title which caused unnecessary distress to the current owner. It was not, as some might suggest, fair comment. The writers would have or ought to have known such language is unacceptable.

"My simple advice is if you think what you are writing would be acceptable to say in front of a police officer in the street then post by all means.

"We fully support free speech but we also support people's right not to be abused and denigrated because of their race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or identity or their age.

"Our enquiries have shown that firstly the offensive phrase was removed and most likely because of our interest the site has now been removed altogether."

Mr Singh, a British Sikh Indian, spoke of his pride in his British heritage, saying: "My grandad served in the British Army in India during the Second World War."

Mr Place is hoping that Mr Singh will be able to put the incident behind him as he moves forward with all the changes to his business.

Mr Place said: "This is just one voice out of 4,500 people in Sutton, I just hope Jazz doesn't get too upset by it. I wish him well."

Anyone who has information about the owner of the site called Bring Back Stevie Place should ring PC Adams on 101.