Cantle report: Question and answer session (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Cantle report: Question and answer session

9:00am Friday 8th May 2009 in

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MR CANTLE conducted a question and answer session after unveiling his report to the 250-strong audience.

He agreed with one woman who said that she believed different communities needed 'intimate contact' to get to know each other better.

On this point Mr Cantle told the audience of 'Living Libraries' that he encountered in Australia.

The 'books' are people with great stories to tell, such as a foster parent, a person from an ethnic minority or the father of a gay child.

Mr Cantle said these were 'borrowed' for a few hours so that people could get a different perspective on life.

He said: "I hope we can create a Living Library in Blackburn."

Coun Salim Mulla, who is also of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said agencies had to show that 'change comes from the top'.

But Mr Cantle said: "We shouldn't see this as something from the top down.

There has to be a groundswell from the bottom up."

An Asian man who had said he had lived in Blackburn for 50 years said that in his experience the town had become more divided, with different communities mixing much less.

Mr Cantle said: "For one reason or another over the last 20 years some of the divisions have become greater and that is a major issue."

At the end of the question and answer session, Mohammed Khan, the borough's mayor, thanked Mr Cantle.

He said: "He has done a difficult job in difficult circumstances," as Mr Cantle left the stage to a round of applause .