Brown backs slur-hit city estate

6:00am Tuesday 8th April 2008

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday backed an Oxford estate, following a row over slurs made by a senior Cabinet minister.

Residents of Blackbird Leys are furious with Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

She said the area suffered from higher-than-average levels of crime, vandalism and unemployment - but residents said it was an out-of-date stereotype.

Mr Brown, who was visiting the city, distanced himself from the views of Ms Blears and applauded the "huge step forward" that Blackbird Leys had taken in recent years.

The PM talked to Blackbird Leys residents about the row when he visited Oxford East MP Andrew Smith's home.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Ms Blears said she would make no further comment.

Mr Brown said: "She was talking about the past, but I am talking about the present and the future.

"There is so much improvement taking place in Blackbird Leys. We should be proud of the work that the local residents and the local MP have done.

"We are talking about a Blackbird Leys that has made a huge step forward, with a great improvement in education and housing. I applaud what has been done."

Blackbird Leys Parish Council chairman Gordon Roper, who met Mr Brown, said: "I'm pleased that Gordon Brown has distanced himself from these comments. It was good for Blackbird Leys that he came to visit.

"He thanked all the people involved in Blackbird Leys and hoped we could progress and get rid of this stigma of our name.

"I would still like Hazel Blears to come down and have a follow-up visit.

"She is welcome to come down any time, we would love her to meet the parish council and have a proper discussion."

Mr Smith said Ms Blears should have known better, after visiting Blackbird Leys two year ago.

He said: "She has said she was referring to the past, but it is just not helpful that these sort of stereotypes get trotted out. As local residents we get sick of it."

Ms Blears's spokesman Paul Richards said: "She supports whatever the Prime Minister has said."

The PM also visited the Oxford Bus Company in Watlington Road, Cowley, to talk to families as part of Labour's campaign for next month's local elections.

Mr Brown met 83-year-old bus company worker Arthur Pearson, who has notched up 60 years' service with the firm, and husband-and-wife drivers Andy Carter and Claire George-Carter, who juggle their shifts around caring for daughter Gemma, eight.

Mr Brown also said that a decision on a proposed eco-town near Weston-on-the-Green was "in the hands of the people of Oxfordshire".

Meanwhile, landlords at two Oxford pubs were given the chance to sound off over higher rents and beer prices when a top Conservative politician dropped in yesterday.

Jeremy Hunt, the MP for South West Surrey and the Tories' shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, visited the Rose and Crown and Gardeners Arms pubs, in North Parade Avenue, off Banbury Road, to speak to residents and landlords about the problems facing smaller local pubs.

Mr Hunt said the Government needed to increase tax on alcopops and build up relationships with councils in a bid to prevent pub closures.

He said: "The message we're getting is pubs are like post offices. They're important to communities.

"We need more sensible policies, rather than rushing through measures which punish ordinary drinkers."

Jenny Rhymes, landlady at the Rose and Crown, said: "Two or three pubs a day are disappearing now. This is part of a national campaign to raise awareness."