Proposals to improve a council's reputation after it was accused of "institutional racism" have been put forward.

Brighton and Hove City Council came in for harsh criticism following a report by the city's racial harassment forum earlier this year.

The forum, a group of black and ethnic community leaders, police, council staff and other community representatives, said the problem had hindered its work in reducing racial incidents.

The review committee's report said it "agreed that institutionalised racism ... is a clear factor in the difficulties currently being experienced by the forum and this must be addressed openly and honestly."

Lib Dem city councillor Paul Elgood, who chairs the city council's equalities forum, supported by Labour's councillor Simon Burgess, will be bringing proposals forward for a comprehensive review into how the city council takes forward its equalities agenda.

If agreed at next Wednesday's policy and resources committee, a special cross-party working group of councillors will re-examine the council's equalities policies and bring together good practice in the field.

The review will be led by Coun Elgood and will include a representative of each political party. It will call expert witnesses from both the council and the communities affected to participate, as well as examining good practice from elsewhere.

It will then make recommendations on a new policy and how it is implemented and monitored.

Coun Elgood said: "I am bringing forward proposals to review the council's equalities policies as I believe it is missing out on the huge opportunities open to it in this field.

"I have no question of the goodwill which currently exists within the council on this important area of work. However, what I keep meeting are the same questions and the same issues which are not being dealt with.

"These need to be strategically addressed as part of a wide reaching policy review which takes in the views of the communities of interest.

"We have a duty to take forward the issues raised by the racial harassment forum, and the proposals we bring forward here will do that comprehensively."

Coun Burgess added: "This is a really interesting and challenging opportunity to move the equalities agenda forward. It's essential for me we do everything we can to earn the council a first class equalities reputation."