Sun newspaper apologises for inaccurate article depicting Sheffield estate as '˜Britain's worst'

Manor Fields Park in Sheffield has won its first Green Flag award recognising excellence in parks. Pictured are Coun Pat Midgley, Brett Nuttall from Green Estate, Diane Cairns, Friends of Manor Fields Park, and council leader Julie Dore.

The article in January, called ‘As Cameron declares war on sink estates, we visit Britain’s worst’, falsely claimed that a reporter had been to the Manor.

Following a complaint by Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield, the article was removed from The Sun’s website and the paper has now made an official apology.

A statement from The Sun said: “An article suggested that a reporter visited the Manor Estate in Sheffield, once described by Roy Hattersley as ‘the worst estate in Britain’.

“In fact, no representative of The Sun did visit the estate. The article was based on archive material, including the 21-year-old Hattersley quote, and did not take into consideration recent improvements. We apologise to residents in the area.”

The paper has previously said the online article was ‘written by a junior and inexperienced journalist who wrongly chose to use archive information without checking recent developments on the Manor estate’.

Mr Blomfield said in March: “The people who live and work in Manor completely reject the image portrayed in The Sun’s article. Manor never was ‘Britain’s worst estate’, as the Sun described it. It’s shoddy journalism and caused huge offence to a great community.”