IMMIGRANTS who came to this country 40 years ago, took on the dirty, low paid jobs others "did not have the guts to do" and made Burnley what it was today, Coun Mozaquir Ali told Burnley Council.

He attacked as "racist" Independent Group leader Harry Brooks who said council taxpayers should no longer be asked to fund foreign language translation services and called for the council's interpretation unit to be wound up as soon as possible.

He said he took exception to Coun Brooks' use of the word "immigrants".

"They are no longer immigrants -- they are fully contributing citizens of this borough and this country," he said.

And he rejected Coun Brooks' view that there should be no permanent council subsidy for services to Asians who continued to rely on languages such as Urdu, Pushto and Bengali as their principal means of communication.

Said Coun Ali: "I do not think they are foreign languages -- they are spoken by citizens of this borough. We are not providing services to foreigners, but to members of our community," he added.

And he told the Independent Group leader: "For a racist, there is no room in this chamber or in this town."

In his motion to the council Coun Brooks said that since taking over the funding of the translation section in 1993, the unit had spent £485,000 and had an income of £161,000 -- a deficit of £324,000 funded by Burnley council taxpayers. He said the special financial favours were resented by those who paid for them but got no benefit and they also demeaned the status and self respect of immigrant communities which had had for generations the advantages of the English education system and who should themselves be able to met any translation needs without special welfare treatment.

He expected the "knee-jerk, politically correct, party hack accusations of racism which a motion like his would provoke.

But he added that in truth the move provided councillors with the opportunity to restore sanity into the situation and demonstrate the council's commitment to the principal of equal treatment.

Labour's Peter Kenyon said he had no doubt that Coun Brooks' motivation was racist.

"He is consistently attacking Asian heritage communities of this town and that is racist."

Coun Brooks' motion was lost by 26 votes to 10, with four abstentions.