Councillor defends community from tabloid ridicule

Date published: 19/03/2008

The Labour Councillor for Central Rochdale has jumped to the defence of the Falinge and College Bank community after the area has been widely condemned across the media as a benefits ghetto.

Speaking after Falinge had been described in various media as a bleak “asphalt jungle”, where people live in “a depressing warren of poverty” and are surrounded by “packs of stray dogs, razor wire around fences and gangs of drugged-up hoodies”, Councillor Ibrar Khan said a sense of perspective needed to be introduced.

“I’m not going to try and sugar coat the reality in Falinge, as this is clearly a place that needs help,” he said. “But I know a lot of hard working people on this estate and there is definitely a strong sense of community. Falinge does have problems and all local parties need to work together to turn this area around. But the people here have their dignity and they should not be viewed as deprivation specimens in the national media.”

Arguing that action and political leadership was needed to transform the area’s fortunes, Councillor Khan has called on Rochdale’s ruling Lib Dem Group to set up a cross party Working Group as soon as possible to start planning a timetable for change.

“We need to get Rochdale working again and we cannot let this matter become just another bad headline that hopefully people will forget about,” he said. “For the Council leader, Alan Taylor, to blame these figures on deprivation is simply stating the obvious. We now need to get a clearer picture of what the barriers are preventing people in this area from working and develop more partnership initiatives to help people back into the workplace.”

He also warned that Kingsway Business Park should not be viewed as a magic bullet to tackle long term unemployment and questioned whether Rochdale Council were using the right measuring tool to establish a true picture of unemployment in Falinge.

“I am concerned that some people seem to think that Kingsway Business Park will wipe away deprivation in our Borough,” he said. “This is a very short-sighted view, as there are a host of other problems holding people back from work such as poor physical and mental health, labour market inequalities, low skill levels and high personal debt.

“Furthermore, Paul Rowen has accused the Government of hiding incapacity benefit figures and yet on Rochdale Council’s website under their Best Value Performance Plan, it states that only six to seven per cent of the working age population are unemployed in Falinge. If they’re going to present an accurate picture, they should really be measuring worklessness, as these figures are a long way short of what’s been presented in the media this week.”