Mounting pressure on Channel 4 to apologise

4:05am Friday 19th October 2007

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PRESSURE is growing on Channel Four to apologise for describing a North-East town as the worst place in Britain to live.

On Wednesday night, the channel's Location, Location, Location programme rounded on Middlesbrough for its apparent high crime levels, severe drug and health problems and poor education results.

It led the Mayor of Middlesbrough, Ray Mallon, to lambaste the broadcaster and declare he was boycotting the channel.

Last night, a regeneration boss and a major town employer backed Mr Mallon.

Joe Docherty, chief executive of Tees Valley Regeneration, the organisation behind the £500m flagship redevelopment of Middlesbrough's dockside, said: "To describe Middlesbrough as the worst place to live in Britain is ludicrous and insulting to everyone who knows the town.''

He said programme presenters Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer should have visited the town first before presenting their views.

Mr Docherty added: "I will be asking Channel 4 to supply us with the information used to compile the programme so we can see how they came to this ridiculous conclusion.

"While there are still challenges to be met, the programme in no way reflected the pace of change, which is already winning awards and attracting national and international attention.''

Peter Studd, partnership director with Middlesbrough Council's private sector partners, HBS Business Services, joined the criticism.

He said: "As the town's largest private sector employee, we agree with (Mr Mallon) that Middlesbrough is a town that is moving rapidly in the right direction and is an attractive place to live, work and invest.

"The vast majority of our workforce are local people and they embody the friendly can-do attitude of their community, of which they are rightly proud.

"I am sure that the people who visit Middlesbrough and see its clean streets, beautiful open spaces and meet its welcoming people will believe the evidence of their own eyes, rather than the highly selective portrait painted by this programme.''

Councillors Eddie Dryden and Barry Coppinger, two leading members of Middlesbrough Council, said the programme was "a serious challenge to the credibility of television broadcasting".

In a joint statement they said: "If Nelson Mandela visited Middlesbrough and, following his visit, was to state that in his opinion Middlesbrough was the worst town in Britain, it would be a cause for concern and a catalyst for serious soul-searching.

"On the other hand, if a couple of estate agents from the South came up with a list of indicators and said the same thing, it would be dismissed as typical petty bigotry and prejudice.''

A Channel Four spokeswoman defended the programme, saying: "All the data was taken from information in the Office for National Statistics, the Home Office and other sources of statistics on which our research is based. This is how it turned out.''