They decided York was racist before the study, says CHRIS STEWARD

York Minster Towers (Image: Getty) I’ve been lucky to live in York all my life; the finest city in the finest county in the land. I admit I may be biased, but when around the county or world I tell people I am from York everyone who has been to York also loves it. Whether the Minster, City Walls, chocolate history and present, the National Railway Museum or the wonders of independent shops the city has so much to offer everyone and the people are warm and welcoming. Eight years ago I was leader of City of York Council, it was an honour and York was always an easy sell. So what would you guess the new council administration would do to help York, especially in these times of tough public finances? Well my first suggestion would not have been spending thousands on a report to declare that “systemic racism and prejudice are prevalent in the City of York” and that it is “manifested in many forms”, but that is what the Labour administration is doing. A new report by the Inclusive Equal Rights UK 3.0 (IERUK), who describe themselves as “an inclusive grassroots organisation focusing on Policy-making, Research and Strategy, Campaigning and Advocacy” has left people I speak to in York in shock. It is simply not the city we know. The report reads like it was mainly written before any council approached the IERUK, being full of stark statements of how intolerant everyone is, and it seems Labour councillors in York were the first to force their taxpayers to pay for it. For York the report is based on a highly selective interpretation of very limited data, often declaring huge trends from data which when broken down is sometimes single digits and arriving at demographic data conclusions which do not match other sources, notably the Office for National Statistics. It feels like the report’s conclusions were decided before it was written and everything then worked around. For example the report is outraged that BAME employees at Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Mental Health Trust are only five percent of the workforce, but the fact York & Scarborough Hospital Trust has a figure of over 20 percent is not in any way seen as a positive.   The report says there are 100 different ethnicities in York and as many languages spoken. I am sure this is true but, if I might deviate from the report’s authors, in my view these people get on, integrate and work very well together. Not perfectly perhaps, as we are all human, but very well. Remember the last time you heard York in the national news for racism or intolerance? Nope, me neither, well not until this report! On key measures like hate crime even the IERUK admit York is doing better than regional and national averages. The report has dozens of questions, observations and recommendations and the questions very much have the look of “we can’t find anything wrong here, but what else could we ask to try and manufacture something?” York, like anywhere, could and should always look to do more in fighting racism and discrimination; but damning the city as racist is not the way forward and not truthful as people of all races who live in York, are students in the city or have stayed and visited know. It is a shame some in the city’s own council disagree. Chris Steward is leader of the City of York Council Conservative Group.