A STREET in the North-East has won the inauspicious crown of being the poorest address in the country to live - despite there being no residential houses on the road.

A survey shows that Newport Road, in Middlesbrough, has the lowest average income of £12,000, £50,000 behind the most affluent address of Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent. The national average is £29,374.

The disparity is wider if the richest and poorest earners are taken into consideration. About 15 per cent of households in Kings Hill enjoy a joint income of more than £100,000 whereas in Newport Road, in the TS5 postcode area, 45 per cent earn less than £10,000.

But the research, carried out by CACI, which involved a survey of 1.7 million postcodes to produce its Wealth of the Nation report, is fundamentally flawed, said ward councillor John McPartland.

He said the study did not show the true picture of the area and doubted the authenticity of the picture used to illustrate the article in yesterday's Observer.

He said: "As far as I am concerned there are no residential houses in Newport Road so I am at a loss to know where they got their figures from. I think I will drive down Newport Road and count the number of residential properties but I certainly can't think of any that are there any more.

"Consequently, if they are reporting on residential dwellings and residents' earnings in the road, they must be using inaccurate data because I can't visualise the area it is describing.

"As far as I am concerned the article in the Observer is flawed because it is based on inaccurate research. I would love to know where the photograph was taken that is used in the article because I certainly don't know where it is."