l've been betrayed by a white hierarchy

Southwark council has been facing up to many social, environmental, political and economic challenges. It has also made progress in responding to inequalities and deprivation. But it has become obsessed with winning awards.

It feels it cannot allow those residents who are persistently critical about the council's failings to be seen or heard, lest they damage its image and ability to win prizes.

Imperial Gardens' former directors Raymond Stevenson and Lucia Hinton have had no choice but to maintain a campaign seeking to expose what was done to them in a battle for justice.

Following the district auditor's report I was asked by the council to review the council's equality and diversity project. I heard evidence from many black and minority ethnic small businesses, telling stories of appalling treatment, mainly by the planning and regeneration departments.

It seems to me that Southwark's approach to regeneration has resulted in the ousting of viable small independent traders, replacing them with "clone town" multiple names favoured by council officers.

Having produced what I believed to be a helpful report for the council, assuming it wanted to change behaviour and tackle the problems of discrimination, I expected it to take urgent action. That has not been the case.

Many complainants' evidence was in an appendix which contained many disturbing allegations. But it was not published with the main report, because of legal advice. Ultimately, the council published the appendix on its website, but in such a savagely censored version as to have no value whatsoever.

These stories represent the perception of ordinary people that "big brother" was wrecking their lives through callous insensitivity and uncaring bureaucracy.

What is occurring in Southwark is typical of what can happen in any organisation which has a dominant white hierarchy incapable of acknowledging its own shortcomings and unfairness to others, even if there is no direct racist intent.

I feel that, intentionally or not, I may have been used not so much to uncover any wrongs but to help cover them up in the guise of an impartial inquiry.

The council still refuses to engage with those complainants in meaningful ways. Instead, it is busy setting up yet more structures, panels and committees to secure compromise, compliance and conformity, giving the appearance of progress while in effect preserving the status quo and protecting the wrongdoers.

The council could resolve most of these matters instantly if the political will were there. One Lib-Dem councillor, Jonathan Hunt, has been suspended from the group for the heinous crime of siding with those victims of the system who dare to complain of racial discrimination.

The Commission for Racial Equality has warned it will launch a formal investigation next month unless Southwark can prove it has mended its ways.

The council tells me it will resolve most complaints by the end of this month, but I'm not holding my breath.