Council chiefs have stepped up a drive to recruit more black workers - despite claims that a job advertisement was "racism in reverse".

Cllr John Tanner, leader of Oxford City Council, said an advert ruling out white applicants for a trainee carpenter post was justified because of a desperate shortage of non-white employees.

He made a fresh appeal for people from ethnic minorities to apply for jobs within the city council.

Cllr Tanner said: "For good or bad reasons, there is an unusually low number of people from ethnic minorities in our City Works department. "We are pushing the boat out in order to get a fair number of black and Asian people working for the council. This is not something where we are being PC, it is something crucial to the life of Oxford."

Mum Carole Newbigging, of Poplar Grove, Kennington, lashed out at the council after her son Jamie, 16, was ruled out for the trainee post because of his colour.

The ad, in the Oxford Mail's sister paper, the Oxford Times, said: "Applicants must be from one of the following community groups: African, Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Chinese."

Mrs Newbigging asked: "Does the council not consider this racism in reverse?" The ad, one of five advertising apprenticeships for black and Asian people, followed a report revealing that less than two per cent of employees in the council's maintenance department were from the ethnic minorities. Census figures show that 10.5 per cent of Oxford's population are non-white.

The council has set aside £61,700 to recruit more black and Asian workers.

Mr Tanner added expansion plans meant there would also be opportunities for white people. "It is so difficult to recruit from the black and Asian community that we are giving them the first bite of the cherry," he said.

Story date: Friday 21 May

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