City council bars whites from training scheme

Bristol City Council is facing criticism after the two-year graduate placement, worth 18,000, was offered only to ethnic minorities.

The council – the city's largest employer – said the process was legal and is addressing an imbalance in the ethnic mix of its workforce.

On potential applicant, who did not wish to be named, told a local newspaper: "I am a tolerant white person who has lived in Bristol for 27 years.

"I am currently searching for a job and stumbled across a job advertisement on Bristol City Council's website that I see as totally racist.

"I feel the job itself would be an excellent opportunity for me to make use of the skills and qualifications that I have acquired. However, being white I am totally excluded from applying for the post."

Seven per cent of the council's 9,000 non-school members of staff are from ethnic minorities, compared to 12 per cent of Bristol's population as a whole.

A council spokesman said : "This is the third year of running the traineeship and it was started because of the marked under-representation of BME (black and minority ethnic) people in the council's workforce."