'˜We want an apology' - Sun newspaper takes down inaccurate article depicting Sheffield estate as '˜Britain's worst'

Manor Fields Park in which previously 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 national newspaper said the Manor estate was one of the places earmarked for demolition and re-build as part of David Cameron’s plans to tackle ‘sink estates’ in an article published on January 10.

A spokesman for the paper said the journalist who wrote the story used quotes from a story in the Mirror from 2007 and old photographs depicting the area as derelict and unsafe.

What the new homes on the Manor estate in Sheffield will look like.

The headline also falsely claimed the reporter had visited the estate - the story prompted an angry reaction from residents and city politicians.

Sheffield Council leader, Julie Dore has asked for an apology from the newspaper.

She said: “I’m very pleased that it’s been taken down. I’d expect a sincere apology from the reporter who wrote the piece and from the editor.

“The Manor estate has seen much investment over the past few years and a big housing development has been announced which shows that external investment has great confidence that the area is a great place to live.

“This awful sink estate term that the Prime Minister uses is something from the 1980s and no area in Sheffield was planned for this type of demolition.”

A Sun spokesperson told The Guardian: “This was an online article written by a junior and inexperienced journalist who wrongly chose to use archive information without checking recent developments on the Manor estate.

“The Sun acknowledged the article was wrong and removed it as soon as the error was flagged. The journalist has been disciplined and moved off online news reporting.”

Sheffield MP Paul Blomfield, who made the complaint to the newspaper, said: “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, and there’s been considerable investment in the area over recent years.

“The Sun claimed that they’d visited the estate, but hadn’t. They used outdated quotes from the archives as current comments. It’s shoddy journalism and caused huge offence to a great community that deserves better.

“We’re simply asking the Sun to print an apology and implement proper processes to ensure it never happens again.