Burnley & Pendle British National Party

Policy Briefing for May's Local Council Elections


STABILISING THE MAKE-UP OF THE BURNLEY POPULATION


BACKGROUND AND STATISTICS

At the 1991 Census the ethnic minority population in Burnley was 5,041. This represented 5.53% of the total population.

The majority of this community was Pakistani and Bangladeshi in origin.

New figures for the ethnic make-up of Burnley will be published later this year.

In September 2001 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a report which informed us that the ethnic minority population in Britain had grown 15 times faster than the white population during the five years 1993-1998. Over the same period the ONS reported that the Bangladeshi community had grown by 30%, while the white population had increased by less than 1%.

Until the new figures are released we can only estimate how the ethnic minority population in Burnley has grown over the last ten years. A conservative calculation would be that the total figure could be 7,160 which would be 7.87% of the total population.

Of course this figure does not take into account additional new settlement in the town, but for the sake of this briefing we shall assume that the ethnic minority population in Burnley stands at 8%.

THE NEED FOR STABILITY?

Although the disturbances last June were primarily criminal or yob culture orchestrated, there was a strong racial element to them.

The settlement of substantial numbers of asylum seekers in Nelson, and not an insignificant number in Burnley itself, has caused concern amongst the indigenous population.

Race relations in the town are strained. The BNP believes the key to a peaceful co-existence between the two communities is stability within those communities.

When one community is constantly growing, there will always be disquiet and unease within the other.

POLICY OBJECTIVE

Apart from offering family planning advice, there is little that can be done to change established birth-rates within a community.

However Burnley Council could ensure that there is no further new settlement in the town.

This would be the objective of our population stability policy.

THE POLICY

Success for BNP candidates in the May elections would provide the clearest signal that the indigenous population of Burnley regarded the stabilising of the ethnic minority population as the priority for the town.

The election of BNP councillors and the ensuing publicity this might attract, would be a deterrent in itself to new minority settlement. New immigrants would not wish to settle in a town with a high BNP profile.

National Asylum Support Service (NASS)
Over the last 18 months the indiscrimate dispersal of asylum seekers within our inner-town wards has added to tensions. BNP councillors would oppose any future settlement in the town of asylum seekers and refugees by the NASS.

Burnley and Padiham Community Housing (BPCH)
BNP councillors would immediately end the BPCH's 'London Borough's Initiative'. This ill thought-out and irresponsible exercise seeks to attract the poorest ethnic minorities from the East End of London to come to Burnley. These unfortunate people would be Housing Benefit tenants and would contribute nothing to the community. Payment of their rents to the BPCH would provide a further strain on Burnley council.

The Shah Jalal Mosque
We would oppose planning permission for this or any other new Mosque in Burnley. A new Mosque would attract more Muslims to the town. This planning application refusal alone, would send out the clearest signal to all conerned that the people of Burnley do not wish to see an increase in the size of the ethnic minority population in the town

BME Specific Housing Strategy
BNP Councillors would not support the introduction for a special housing policy for the black and minority ethnic community (BME). Housing will be the priority of BNP representatives on the council, but only with regard to the needs of the wards in Burnley that have been neglected by Labour.

SUMMARY

For the last ten years Burnley's Labour Council have positively discriminated in favour of the town's ethnic minorities. This has been done at the expense of the idigenous population.

BNP councillors will end this preferential funding. We will seek to redress the balance of the Labour era by focussing all our efforts on the most needy areas of our town.

Daneshouse has now become a very presentable district and Labour must be given credit for their regeneration of the area. The Pakistani and Bangladeshi populations now have their living space and it is of a high standard. As long as the size of this population stays stable, race relations within Burnley will not deteriorate.





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