A REPORT into Blackbird Leys paints an overly depressing picture of progress on the Oxford estate.

The report for the Wates Foundation, a charitable trust that invested £146,000 in the area last year, believes there have not been enough improvements in problems over the years like drug dealing, antisocial behaviour and young people’s low aspirations.

Its conclusion — that you can’t fix everything by just throwing money at a problem — is correct. While it concludes more strategic action is needed, it appears too idealistic.

Blackbird Leys has some problems, like every similar estate in the country. Not all is perfect but people living in the community, and outside it, are working hard to make life better – and they are succeeding. They need continuing support.

We hope this report acts as a spur to more action and not just a stick to beat the area with.

  • LIKE the ghost of Christmas Past, a new generation of the Dickens family has risen to warn us about caring for our fellow man.

Gerald Dickens, the great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens, is not overly complimentary on how Britain in 2009 would be viewed by his famous forebear.

Many of the criticisms and fears Dickens had in his day, and that he hoped A Christmas Carol would address, remain true now, according to Abingdon-based Mr Dickens.

He draws an interesting parallel between Scrooge and the bankers’ bonuses scandal against a background of the divide between rich and poor.

There’s one flaw though: much of our current problems stem from bankers giving away far too much money to those who couldn’t pay, rather than being miserly with it.