Citizens Charter against Racism and Hate Crimes

Barnsley has always been a centre of community change and community development. Barnsley people historically come together to meet challenges and change. The end of Coal and the Miners Strike brought people and their groups and organisations in the pit villages and the town together as never before. Out of these efforts, pulling together, people themselves have found a new positive future in a changing Barnsley. A Barnsley which has welcomed for generations new settlers from other mining areas, wartime refugees, Hungarians in 1956, hospital staff and GP’s from Asia and Africa, is once again becoming an area with a new diversity. Barnsley is welcoming young workers from other parts of Europe, and refugees fleeing persecution and poverty, seeking a new life, working long hours to succeed. They are bringing again new hopes and belief in a new future for the town and its economy.

But at present we are not hearing the voices of a new Barnsley. We are hearing instead the voices of intolerance, division, racism and hate from a tiny minority of Barnsley people which is poisoning the climate of hope and progress for the town. This is why we have drawn up a ‘One Barnsley’ Citizens Commitment against Racism and Hate Crime. The message is clear, we are one community, making a stand against racism and hatred in our Town.

To view the Principals of the Citizens Charter against Racism and Hate Crime, follow this link (the document is 24k and is in pdf format ).