LOCAL Tories are making another effort to save Bury Racial Equality Council from extinction.

They are unhappy that Bury Council leaders refused to bail out the REC after it lost its annual £30,000 funding from the Commission for Racial Equality.

Eight party councillors have "called in" the matter for special debate at Thursday's meeting of the resource scrutiny panel. The REC says that grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to tackle discrimination and harassment are at risk unless the shortfall is found to employ its staff.

These include £260,000 from the Community Fund, £90,000 from Comic Relief, and £94,000 from the Primary Care Trust.

Bury Council already gives the REC £25,000 each year, but Labour members of the executive refused to stump up any more.

However, Conservative members have taken the unusual step of "calling in" the decision.

They say there have been insufficient attempts to find alternative funding for the REC, "minimal" discussion of the part played by the national agencies responsible, and little thought of the likely loss of other grants the REC gets.

They want to examine the council's correspondence on the matter, and interview senior REC and council officers, MPs, the CRE and Home Office personnel. They also question how good relations can be promoted "when the demise of the REC coincides with tensions relating to terrorism, Iraq, asylum seekers and the BNP".