York reaffirms commitment to tackling racism and promoting inclusivity

City of York Council has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the city in its bid to tackle racism and promote inclusivity this week.

The council’s Executive Member for Culture, Leisure and Communities, Councillor Darryl Smalley, received an update on the city’s ongoing anti-racism work and agreed an initial response to the report ‘A Snapshot View of Racial Disparity in the City of York’ at Decision Session held today (21 March). The report was produced in February 2023 by York-based Community Interest Company, Inclusive Equal Rights UK 3.0 – (IERUK).

The update follows a council motion in October 2021, which declared the council’s commitment to anti-racism and inclusivity, in support of ‘Speak Up Diversity’ (now Inclusive Equal Rights UK 3.0 - IERUK) with the endorsement of several agencies across the city. The council motion was unanimously approved.

The overarching goal of the motion was to develop a long-term anti-racism and inclusion strategy and action plan for York. The action plan will provide a set of initiatives to tackle casual and systemic racism, promote equality and fairness, and champion diversity and inclusion in the city. The long-term anti-racism and inclusion strategy and action plan will be available this summer.

Responding to the report’s findings, Councillor Darryl Smalley, the council’s Executive Member for Culture, Leisure and Communities, said: "We welcome IERUK’s important work to understand how ethnic groups experience life in York, and we are grateful for their continued focus on this important challenge. Hearing from residents and visitors who have been subjected to racism has been critical and we’d like thank these individuals for sharing their experiences.

"York has long been recognised as a City of Sanctuary and Human Rights City. However, precisely because we understood that there is still much progress needed in to end race discrimination – with action required from both the council and the city - that we set out our ambition to become the first anti-racist city in the North. 

"As we continue our close work with organisations across the city to help improve the experiences of York’s diverse communities, we will look hard at these questions and continue learning from feedback over coming months.  We are looking forward to continued collaboration with IERUK and other organisations during the summer and beyond, and we strongly recommit to the council policy as agreed in 2021 – ‘Making York an Anti-Racist and Inclusive City’, which was unanimously supported by councillors across all political parties."