Minorities' group in talks with officials
An assembly set up to speak for minorities is hoping to have its first meeting with city councillors tomorrow.
The Racial Minority Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly was set up a year ago as a meeting group to help minorities have a say in council funding decisions.
As well as Leicester's ethnic minorities, the assembly aims to represent faith groups, the elderly and lesbian and gay people.
On Sunday, January 30, representatives of nearly 40 community groups attended a meeting to discuss Government spending cuts.
Tomorrow's meeting will be the first to involve members of Leicester City Council in discussions.
Iris Lightfoote, chief executive of the Race Equality Centre, which hosts the assembly, said: "The assembly has been going for more than a year and we want to local authorities to recognise that we need to be involved in discussions about funding. We are expecting members of the city council to attend tomorrow."
I speak to my good friend and colleague, Iris (who is also Chair of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership) and she tells me (with some degree of exasperation) that the Mercury has hyped up this story, to make it look like the Assembly will be covering virtually every equality strand or protected characteristic in sight. She reassures me that they have no intention of representing faith groups in the city- and that I can inform the Board of the Council of Faiths that she says so (I'm paraphrasing here of course).
Normally, I place a link to the original website here, so that the article can be read in context, along with comments left by visitors. However, ther's only one comment attached to this piece and I thought I'd reproduce it here. Is it amusing or sarcastic? You decide: "According to a recent report the indigenous population of Leicester will be in the minority by 2015 if not sooner. Will this group be included in this assembly? "
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