Oxford's Lord Mayor is among a group of city and county councillors who will write to Hazel Blears condemning her "outrageous" comments on Blackbird Leys.

The city council's south east area committee, which oversees Littlemore, Rose Hill and Blackbird Leys, agreed to forward its "disgust" to the Government minister.

The committee is chaired by city councillor Ed Turner and includes Lord Mayor councillor John Tanner.

At the group's meeting this week, county councillor Val Smith, of the Leys and Lye Division, asked the panel to comment on the issue.

She said: "I'm sure the area committee will want to express its disgust at the ignorance of Hazel Blears' comments."

In a speech to the Fabian Society in London last week, communities minister Miss Blears said Blackbird Leys was an estate "scarred by the mistakes of well-meaning planners".

She said: "The drive to build 'units', as they described them, obscured the need for liveability, so that (in) places such as Skelmersdale in Lancashire, Stonebridge in north London, Easterhouse outside of Glasgow, or Blackbird Leys on the outskirts of Oxford, generations of families have struggled with higher-than-average levels of crime, vandalism, unemployment, unresponsive public services and poor quality housing."

Mr Turner said: "It was pretty outrageous, really."