Shuley Alam to be recognised with blue plaque

Shuley Alam left an incredible legacy, South Tyneside Council said

An equality champion is to be remembered with a blue plaque alongside a late Formula 1 team boss, a Tyneside council has announced.

Shuley Alam, who died in 2020 aged 46, was founder of Compact for Race Equality South Tyneside (Crest).

A plaque will be unveiled at the organisation's headquarters in South Shields in the coming months.

Sir Frank Williams will also be recognised having been born in the town and spending his early years in Jarrow.

The racing boss, who died last year at the age of 79, founded the Williams Formula 1 team.

Tributes poured in for Sir Frank Williams following his death last year

A third plaque will honour the work of the South Shields Sea Cadets. Their building, on Comical Corner, was formerly used by the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves and was the site of the training ship HMS Satellite.

Councillor Joan Atkinson, deputy leader of South Tyneside Council, said the move to honour Ms Alam would "pay a lasting tribute to the incredible legacy she left behind" having been a role model for women and the black, Asian and minority ethnic community.

The further two plaques, meanwhile, would "give rightful recognition to the outstanding sporting achievements of Sir Frank Williams and the huge importance of the Sea Cadets building to the borough's rich and proud maritime heritage," she added.

There are currently 30 such plaques across the borough and earlier this year three were unveiled in honour of educator and first wife of George Orwell, Eileen O'Shaughnessy, photographer and historian Amy Flagg and South Shields showman Gary Gillespie Davison.