A £400,000 initiative aimed at tackling ‘Al Qaida-inspired extremism’ in Oxford has been branded “unnecessary and ill-judged”.

The four-year Preventing Violent Extremism programme has come to an end and more than £150,000 of the £437,000 pot remains unspent.

Muslim leaders say the cash was not needed, achieved little and could prove counter-productive by sparking reactions from right-wing groups.

Even those running the programme, at Labour-run Oxford City Council and Thames Valley Police, admit city schools were reluctant to get involved due to the stigma attached to its name.

Some 29 projects were funded, including sports activities for Muslim youths, refugee workshops and Bangladeshi theatre productions.

The council and police said Oxford had always been a low-risk area for Islamic extremism and so instead work focused on strengthening communities’ “resilience”.

Fazal Hussain, chairman of Central Mosque in East Oxford, said: “In Oxford there is no problem, so this should have involved all communities and not just singled out Muslims.”

He said the mosque, which has more than 1,000 members, had worked hard to encourage respect and understanding without Government funding.

He said: “I would have thought there were better ways of spending the money, on the NHS or on education.”

City councillor Altaf Khan said the majority of city Muslims did not want the cash.

The Liberal Democrat member for Headington and Northway added: “That’s why they cannot spend it.

“It was unnecessary and based on the wrong thinking.”

He was the council’s executive member for community safety at the time the programme was launched.

But he claimed he had no choice but to accept the cash, although he had raised concerns at that time.

He added: “I’m glad it’s over. It has done nothing.”

Oxford was one of about 50 local authorities to receive funding from the Government-led programme, devised in the wake of the July 7 London bombings in 2005.

Labour councillor Antonia Bance, who helped run the scheme, said: “The programme has always been a sensitive one, not helped by the fact that nationally it had an unhelpful name and profile. We have used the money to build cohesion between communities.”