5.9 Equal Opportunities
In line with general and specific statutory duties, under the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, the Council operates a Race Equality Scheme (RES) in order to eliminate unlawful discrimination and to promote race equality and good race relations. This has been updated and improved, with a new action plan for 2005 - 2008.
The Council is committed to treating everyone fairly and justly, whatever their race or background. The Scheme gives priority to actions relating to Travellers as the biggest ethnic minority in the district (around 1.7% of the district’s population). Statistics from the 2001 Census also show that, whilst only 2.9% of the district's population is made up of black and minority ethnic (BME) groups, there are three wards (Girton, Milton and Teversham) where the BME population is two or three times as much.
The Race Equality Scheme assesses the following SCDC services as particularly relevant to the Council's statutory duty to promote race equality: planning applications; planning enforcement and appeals; planning policy; management of Council-run Traveller sites; corporate co-ordination of the Council’s policy on Traveller issues; community safety; legal services; homelessness and housing advice; council tax collection; and housing and council tax benefits.