AN initiative designed to give long-term unemployed people fresh hope in the jobs market has been launched by a local authority.

North Yorkshire County Council will be taking on at least 30 people a year under the Government's New Deal scheme.

But the move only came after the council faced strong criticism from Labour Party leaders over its alleged failure to make a greater commitment to the programme over the past four years.

New Deal clients were first given work placements at the authority in April this year, despite it signing up to the project in 1998.

The slow take-up of the scheme had angered county councillor John Ritchie, Labour's economic development spokesman.

"This is obviously a hugely embarrassing situation for the county council to find itself in," he said this week.

"It's an admission that, although the county council signed up to the New Deal programme in 1998, until April 2002 not a single person from among the long-term unemployed in North Yorkshire was offered employment opportunities with the county council itself."

He said: "We were first made aware of this problem during a visit to the council's Employment and Training Services Centre, in Harrogate, by a cross-party delegation of members.

"We were amazed to discover the county council wasn't at the forefront of opportunity for getting people back into work."

But business director Gordon Gresty insisted the council was fully committed to New Deal and had big plans for the future.

"What we have done is come up with a proposal where each of the directorates will take on at least five New Deal clients each year," he said.

Those given opportunities would be on work placements of up to 26 weeks.

Mr Gresty said: "We are also going to trial something else - with the lowest-salaried posts that come up we are going to see if there is a New Deal client who could match the job description.

"A working group of representatives from each of the directorates is going to get together with Job Centre Plus and other employment agencies to create a better understanding and interest in the process."