A PROJECT to create special 'champions' for Oxford's black and ethnic minority communities has led to a political row.

Councillor Stuart Craft sparked outrage amongst fellow councillors after calling for the scheme to be axed as he said it could fuel racial tensions.

But his motion, raised at an Oxford City Council meeting on Tuesday, was rebuffed by the vast majority of members following heated exchanges.

About 25 residents from ethnic backgrounds will be recruited for special training workshops, which are being run jointly by Oxford city and Oxfordshire county councils.

The recruits will be shown how the councils work, what they do, and what the role of officers and councillors is.

The authorities hope people taking part will become spokesmen for their communities, increasing involvement in issues such as planning, housing and leisure services.

But a motion tabled by Mr Craft, leader of the Independent Working Class Association group, stated: "The allocation of precious funds from the Lib Dem-controlled city council and the Tory-controlled county council to create champions for 'BME' communities will be seen as a stab in the back to many of the majority of non-ethnic minority council tax payers of Oxford."

The motion also said it runs the risk of "encouraging hostility towards those receiving this special treatment."

Mr Craft told the Oxford Mail: "We would argue that Blackbird Leys is a community, not a black community and a white community or whatever. It's unhelpful to talk about separate communities."

But the council's deputy leader David Rundle said: "It is about community engagement and community is defined in different ways.

"That's geographically and the other part is looking at those groups who find it less easy to access services."

He said the project was aimed at all minority communities, including those from Eastern Europe, and was funded by the Government.

A spokesman for the Commission for Racial Equality said: "If these measures go some way towards promoting good community relations then we would support them."

The council's Labour group leader Bob Price said: "This is about creating capacity for people to speak for these communities."

Councillor Saj Malik said: "I urge Stuart Craft to join this project to see how good it is."