A LANDMARK Government report has shown the wide-ranging differences in the quality of life across York.

Analysis of deprivation levels in the city by the Department for Communities and Local Government has identified which areas are thriving and which are facing difficulties.

The report examines a range of issues, identifying where residents are struggling to find jobs, where crime is high and where health and education are suffering.

The survey, which looked at every one of the 354 councils in England, ranked York 244th in its final table, placing it in the lower reaches in terms of overall deprivation levels but two places above where it stood in 2007, the last time the study was carried out.

Eight parts of the city were ranked as being among the poorest 20 per cent in the country, with one – Kingsway West, the focus of an action project aimed at providing job opportunities – remaining in the bracket of the ten per cent most deprived areas nationally.

The Indices Of Deprivation survey gives average scores for each City of York Council ward, calculated by factors including employment, education, health and crime. It shows Westfield, which includes the Kingsway West estate, is York’s most deprived ward, followed by Guildhall, Clifton, Heworth and Hull Road.

At the opposite end of the scale, Derwent is classed as the city’s most affluent area, ahead of Haxby and Wigginton, Heslington, Heworth Without and Rural West York. Parts of these wards are classed within the ten per cent least deprived in England.

However, the picture is clouded by parts of wards such as Hull Road, Clifton, Holgate and Acomb, which fare less well in the overall figures, being rated among the 20 per cent of areas nationally which have the lowest deprivation.

Council leader James Alexander said the analysis was extremely useful in showing the disparities within the same ward across many parts of the city.

He said: “York has a reputation nationally as being relatively affluent, but these figures demonstrate that we face some difficult challenges, which are made all the more difficult by Government cuts in public funding to key support services such as children’s centres.

“Planned changes contained in the Welfare Reform Bill will also increase rather than decrease levels of deprivation.”

He said action taken in recent years had brought limited success, and said future action by the new council administration would be “targeted and properly evaluated” to show that they represented investment in the people in the city’s most deprived areas.

Broken down by categories, areas in Westfield have the lowest rankings for health and employment levels.

Rosie Wall, who chairs the Chapelfields Community Association, said: “We have more social housing than other areas. It is also a big ward and it is a hard place to find jobs, particularly full-time jobs. Unfortunately, many people don’t seem to want to become involved in community activities like they used to, but we hope our association will, in the near future, take over the running of Sanderson Court Community House from the council.”

“We hope this would allow us provide more opportunities for residents and volunteers and find out more about what they want, because this is their community and we see them day in, day out. It would mean people not having to pay a lot of money for courses and things like that and allow those who are struggling to make use of the community house.” Deprivation aligned to low income is at its highest in parts of Hull Road and Clifton, while Clifton, Acomb and Westfield contain areas with the greatest problems surrounding education, skills and training.

Violent crime, burglaries, thefts and criminal damage are at their peak in parts of Hull Road, Guildhall, Heworth and Holgate, and at their lowest in Derwent, Rural West York, Fishergate and Haxby and Wigginton.

The way each ward is rated

EACH ward is given an average score based around a series of factors, including levels of income, employment, health and education, skills and training.

Crime, accessibility to services and housing, the environment in each area, exam results of pupils and school attendance levels and the number of adults with qualifications are also taken into account.

The higher the average score for a ward, the more deprived it is.

The ward-by-ward breakdown for York is shown below.

York Press: York's deprivation ward-by-ward

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Pinpointing the hidden poverty

STREETS like Stonegate and Petergate tell the story of an affluent city. So wealthy that, according to a recent report, this is the most desirable spot for retailers outside central London.

But travel a couple of miles to Westfield Ward and a different picture emerges. This part of York is one of the most deprived parts of Britain. It’s a place tourists don’t see and, like Guildhall, the least prosperous area of a well-heeled city.

Of course, every town and city has its deprived areas, but in York the contrast is more vivid than say Bradford or Sheffield. Our medieval streets, not to mention the Minster, are the stuff of postcards, and visitors flock here because of the city’s feel-good factor.

However, Kingsway West is said to be one of the ten per cent most deprived areas nationally, and the figures released today make sobering reading.

They are based on scores for things like income, employment, health and crime; Derwent, Heslington and Haxby’s scores barely register, but Westfield is nearly ten times more deprived.

There is a ray of hope, though. Our most deprived areas pale into insignificance compared to Tower Hamlets and Liverpool.

The figures come from the Indices of Multiple Deprivation and, while it may sound like board-room speak, this is possibly the most significant and detailed research into poverty in England ever put together. Because rather than highlighting generic areas of deprivation, this survey names the two or three streets in a ward that are in most need of help.

Councillors would do well to spend time finding out which ones they are.

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