A POLICE drive to recruit specials from the Asian community in Burnley had met with a 'quite poor' response, Chief Inspector Barry Tomlinson, told race harmony chiefs.

He said a special seminar in the Daneshouse and Stoneyholme community centre had not been as fruitful as had been hoped, but police intended to repeat the exercise locally in future. Chief Insp Tomlinson said there had been greater success with a recruitment drive for full-time officers.

This had attracted 90 applicants from ethnic minority communities in Lancashire.

Burnley and Pendle Racial Equality Council executive heard that seven of the applicants had gone on to become police constables.

REC director Mr Aziz Chaudhry, said local circumstances accounted for the poor response for special constables, with the high number of young Asians without jobs busy looking for work and those in employment working too many hours to be able to take on Special duties.

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