The mother of murdered teenager Charlene Ellis has launched an extraordinary attack on the " faceless people in ivory towers" who develop policies aimed at bringing communities together.
Beverley Thomas, mother of the 18-year-old gunned down at a New Year's Eve party, said community initiatives on their own would never put an end to young people "dying through guns and knives".
Ms Thomas's daughter and her friend Letisha Shakespeare, aged 17, died in a hail of bullets in a drive-by shooting outside the Uniseven hairdressing salon in Aston in the early hours of January 2, 2003.
The Aston mother-of-four vented her fury at the Government and council leaders after The Birmingham Post yesterday revealed that the Home Office was considering rolling out projects across the UK that are being piloted in the city.
Ms Thomas said policy makers are unaware of problems that exist in inner-city communities. She intends to meet with Home Secretary John Reid before launching a new national campaign aimed at tackling gun crime.
Commenting on Government praise for the projects launched by the council in the wake of the Lozells riots, which aimed to steer youths away from violent black and Asian gangs, Ms Thomas said: "These ideas are never going to solve the problems for our young people.
"They are thought up by faceless people in ivory towers who do not live in the community.
"They just work here. They drive in and they drive home and they have no idea what life is really like for families living with these problems.
"They give themselves a big pat on the back, but I wake up every morning and young people are still dying through guns and knives and it's happening across the country."
"I have been thinking about what is needed and I am hoping to present my idea to the Home Secretary John Reid."
Birmingham City Council's cabinet member of equality and human resources, Coun Alan Rudge (Con Sutton Vesey), said he would also welcome meeting Ms Thomas.
He agreed that she "was probably right" that not enough was being done by the council in the community to steer youths away from crime.
Coun Rudge added: "We are hoping to reduce the number of people who are involved in crime, but we are not doing enough to stop the gangs.
"This is because the Government is sending out mixed messages over crime.
"You are more likely to be fined for dropping a lollypop stick than being caught with drugs."
Birmingham Perry Barr Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said he supported Ms Thomas' campaign and would be arranging for her to visit the Home Secretary.
He added: "Perhaps it is time to try a new approach in how we help young people out of a life of crime."
Ms Thomas raised her concerns as the second part of The Post's three-day report into multiculturalism today reveals that segregation and negative perceptions still exist in the inner-city communities scarred by last October's Lozells riots. As part of today's race package, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality Trevor Phillips will be writing exclusively for The Post.
Mr Phillips said: "Inaction is not an option.
"We have to seize the opportunity to manage the differences in our increasingly diverse communities."
