Parking bosses meet Asian leaders

Sunderland Echo
Tuesday October 10, 2006

Parking bosses and council officials have met members of Sunderland's Bangladeshi community over remarks made in a television documentary.
Five parking attendants have been suspended after NCP staff in Sunderland were filmed making racist comments and cracking jokes about disabled people on the BBC programme.
The workers were removed from their positions and a full investigation is under way.
Members of Sunderland City Council and executives from NCP, whose staff enforce parking rules in the city for the authority, have met and spoken with members of Wearside's Bangladeshi community following the programme.
The remarks were filmed as part of an undercover report for the BBC's Inside Out programme and showed one attendant describing slashing a man's tyres after he complained.
NCP took over parking enforcement from the council in 2003 but unions are now urging the authority to take parking enforcement "in-house".
Jacqui Gallagher, branch secretary of Unison, said: "We were against the transfer in the first place and, after watching the programme, have been appalled at the conduct of BCP attendants with their racism, comments about the disabled and their deceitful actions."
After the documentary Coun Bryan Charlton, who has responsibilty for community cohesion in Sunderland, said: "The council and its partners are as shocked as everyone else.
"These views of a tiny minority are not representative of parking attendants in the city."
"Many people in Sunderland have worked very hard over the past few years to promote good relations between people from different backgrounds".