Oldham council blamed over race riots

Municipal leaders in Oldham, who have refused to take any blame for last summer's race riots, came in for a stinging attack from the Audit Commission yesterday for failing to promote racial harmony.

The town, scene of the worst rioting in Britain for a decade, rejected the conclusions of last year's independent review into the disturbances as the unresearched views of "the self- selected few" five months ago.

But the Audit Commission backed the review's findings, blaming management weaknesses at Oldham borough council for its lack of success in establishing stable communities and claiming the council had failed to generate a purposeful debate on race. It said that people from ethnic minorities and women were "seriously under-represented" in senior council posts.

The independent review, headed by David Richie, a former civil servant, put segregation at the heart of the racial chasm that led to three days of pitched battles and said Oldham council had shown a "persistent failure" to face up to the issue since the Seventies.

The ethnic composition of the council workforce also represented a "form of institutional racism," Mr Richie said. The report found 2.63 per cent of the council's 11,621 employees were from ethnic minorities, compared to about 13 per cent of the total population. Oldham council immediately said his words were "unhelpful".

But the Commission, which carried out an inspection on the recommendation of the inquiry, said the council needed to develop a sense of community leadership and vision, and had failed to generate "a purposeful debate on race and community cohesion". It said: "Despite the council's use of the slogan 'Oldham Together', there is a lack of clarity about what this means and how it is to be achieved."

But the report said Oldham had been successful in cutting the number of racist incidents.