A district youth commissioner could help bridge gaps found by Lord Ouseley's race review says the Keighley College principal.

Doug Hardaker, head of the college for 18 years and a member of Bradford Vision - the board of council members, education and commerce leaders who commissioned the race review - feels Bradford should follow the example of Scotland.

"A Scottish newspaper," he explains, "Ran a successful and award-winning campaign for the establishment of a children's commissioner.

"That's going through Scottish parliament at the moment and triggered a thought in my mind.

"Lord Ouseley says a lot of youth feel disenfranchised and this might have a positive effect.

"Why can't we have a couple of young and relatively famous people from Bradford & District to act as fronts for that - people whether they are black or white youngsters can associate with."

Mr Hardaker envisages a website through which youngsters could access for local information, voice their views and ask questions.

"One of the problems the report indicates is youngsters feel they are not listened to," he says.

But this is not a problem at his own college, which he says in all his 18 years as principal has never suffered any racial tension.

Mr Hardaker feels the majority of students regardless of race achieve "against the odds."

He stresses while there is no segregation at Keighley College there is a degree of 'self-segregation.'

"There are clearly some vocational areas," he says, "Where there are jobs already outside for which there are skill requirements.

"Some of these areas don't appear to be deemed appropriate for some of the Asian youngsters. That suggests we've got a lot to learn about how we inform mums, dads, families and the youngsters." Such an area is the construction industry, which is, he says, desperate for bricklayers, decorators and the like but fails to attract Asian applicants.

The college, though, has strong community links and seeks to resolve any education or skills anomalies.

After a meeting with Moslem leaders several years ago a course was set up to help find work for local graduates.

Mr Hardaker says they lacked work experience so a course was set up and links formed with local businesses.

The college was inundated with companies' offers of help and most of the graduates found work.

But Mr Hardaker says: "If you look at figures if you are young and black in Keighley or Bradford you have less chance of working at the moment than if you are white.

"This needs to be addressed in a vibrant, successful economic base.

If we don't have that we don't have grounds for hope and optimism in the future for youngsters and their children."