RACISM and inequality in York are being tackled by a new service in the heart of one of the city's communities.

The York and North Yorkshire Connecting Communities Project, managed and hosted by the York Racial Equality Network, has launched its first outreach surgery in Fourth Avenue, Tang Hall.

The Connecting Communities Project was launched in April this year and has so far been run solely from the Racial Equality Network's Priory Street office.

The location of the new outreach service, The 1 Stop Learning Centre (TH1STLE), was chosen to provide easy access to the service for people on the east of the city - and because of a number of incidents in the Tang Hall area.

John Chambers, Connecting Communities Link Worker, will be at TH1STLE, opposite the Mosque, every Monday and Thursday.

He said: "I've been involved in case work where there are all sorts of issues.

"People have had problems with their children at school, people not too far from here have had windows smashed and had to move - it's when things like that happen you realise the reality of it.

"People say there's not a race problem in York, that's the general thing that is said all the time in York, by white people mainly.

"But then when you go and visit people who have had their windows and doors smashed in simply because they've got a different ethnic background, it highlights the problem."

York does not have a large ethnic population, 1.5 per cent according to the 1991 census, although that figure will be updated soon by the latest census.

PC Greg Morgan, one of Tang Hall's community officers, confirmed that there had been some isolated racial incidents in the area but said there was not a serious problem.

Updated: 11:13 Wednesday, November 14, 2001