TOWN hall chiefs have revealed they are lagging behind government targets when it comes to employing ethnic minorities.

Pendle Council is hoping to boost the number of people from the ethnic community who work for the council in the coming years.

Currently only five per cent of Pendle Council staff are of ethnic origin, with the government's target being 15 per cent.

But councillors on the authority's executive are concerned that in order to reach the national targets, ethnic candidates would be taken on even if they were not of the right calibre.

Coun Rosemary Carroll, said: "Because we need to reach national targets does it mean that we will employ an ethnic person rather than somebody else who is a better candidate for the job?"

Council chiefs said this would not be the case and a number of recruitment strategies were currently underway.

Steve Traynor, personnel manager, said: "It's clear it's always the best person that gets the job but we do go out to schools to encourage people from disadvantaged groups to help to deliver information on how to apply for jobs.

"We have also been to various agencies in the ethnic community to help them apply for jobs they wouldn't apply for.

"We know there is an unwillingness to take on manual work because many of the ethnic people living in Pendle have aspirations to be doctors or solicitors.

"I have heard of cases where parents have prevented their child from working for the borough. It's very difficult to change that culture over night.

"We also have modern apprenticeship schemes which have put young people through their NVQ but is still not as successful as we would like it to be in the manual and craft workers section from that community."

Chief executive Stephen Barnes added: "We are at five per cent and we should be setting targets to get us up to eight percent in the coming year and ten per cent after that.

"Pendle is not uncommon in this. We have to work extremely hard to get a number of ethnic minority representatives and we have got to be seen to be working hard and that is what we will do."