Are we the "saddest" area in the country?

A News of the World study places Middlesbrough as the "saddest place" in the country with the Borough of Redcar & Cleveland in third place.

Our area receives a lot of negative publicity about the quality of life and the health of our citizens. The response to this is usually denial and threats to boycott the messengers as seen in today's Northern Echo story.

You can't deny the fact that there are real health and sickness problems in our area; high levels of unemployment on many estates and poor housing.

Redcar's Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesman, Ian Swales (pictured second left), said:

"These results certainly make me depressed. Sadly they're not surprising. High levels of people not working or having to work outside the area, the constant bother of low level crime and some parts being very run down are bound to affect people's health. Teesside has been let down by generations of politicians."

"No doubt people will try to say the results of these surveys are somehow not representative. They will probably be people with positions to protect. In fact the very people who have brought the area to it's current state. For example where are the well paid Civil Service jobs that the Government have been promising for ten years?"