Would you live here, Mr Blair?

Last night one man put his case to Prime Minister Tony Blair. Stuart Arnold reports.

BACK in 1989 Tony Preece paid £23,000 for No 28 Alliance Street in the Parkfield area of Stockton. Now, in its dilapidated state, it's worth a fraction of that sum.

Tony's is a cautionary tale which begins when almost every house in the terraced street was occupied. Today, it's a different picture and many homes are boarded up with ugly metal panels. No 28 is grey and derelict with no redeeming features, save for a solitary window on the top floor. Inside, the house has been trashed and stripped, and burnt out by vandals.

Unemployment in this part of Teesside is four-and-a-half times the national average and Alliance Street reflects the attendant poverty and deprivation. The street is strewn with rubbish, graffiti is everywhere and used hypodermic needles litter the area.

Tony, who last night appeared on ITV's Tonight With Trevor McDonald where he was given the opportunity to question the Prime Minister about his predicament, says life began going downhill when a handful of new families who brought a "Mad Max" mentality with them moved in. Children ran amok, and drinking and drug taking became the norm.

The 42-year-old former barman's home was burgled, his car was broken into twice and he was subjected to threats and violence when he complained. The more established families then began moving out to escape the mayhem and the empty houses were looted and set on fire.

Eventually, it all became too much for Tony who says he cracked up and began having panic attacks.

"After several years the area disintegrated into an absolute hell hole," he says. "All the reasonable people in the street lived in an intolerable situation and the daily stress was unbearable. People just left because they could not take it any more. We were forced out of our homes."

He and his wife Angela eventually left in 1996, but have been unable to sell their house, which still has another 12 years to run on the mortgage. The only offer they have received is £4,000 from a local agency seeking to buy the property to house asylum seekers.

Tony was one of 12 voters from across the country picked by ITV to question Tony Blair over the Government's legislative programme detailed in the Queen's Speech. The Prime Minister told him that a raft of measures was being introduced to tackle the root of urban decay in Britain's inner cities. These include fast-track methods for local authorities to remove troublesome council tenants.

Tony, who still has to pay 50 per cent council tax on his almost worthless home, lays the blame for the situation on the police and the local council.

He says: "The police had a 'don't care' attitude and having called them to the house on more than one occasion I was asked, 'Why are you still living here?' Drug dealing was also openly condoned, presumably because the police were after bigger fish."

Of Stockton Borough Council, he says: "It has supposedly a tranche of regeneration funding from the Government, so why is there no regeneration? It has recently found £200,000 to board up our houses and provide lockable gates for rear alleyways. But this seems like an insult. It is utterly shameless in its aim to make this disaster look a bit tidier."

Stockton South MP Dari Taylor admits that Alliance Street and the surrounding Parkfield ward are seriously depressed, but says she has no explanation as to why they have deteriorated so badly. She is one of a number of MPs pressing for a better funding formula for councils in the North to help these areas.

She says: "We are one of the drugs capitals of Great Britain here and the fact is that the criminal fraternity are out there in exponential numbers. But we are all working flat out and are hell bent on trying to do something to improve things.

"There are no instant fixes and I have no obvious answers. I am constantly beating the drum with Government ministers for more money. We need the Government to see that local authorities are desperate for money to demolish and recreate."

Despite local criticism, the figures show that Stockton Borough Council spent £7m in Parkfield in 2000-1 in a bid to improve the area. Some £15m to £20m has gone towards regeneration programmes in Parkfield and other central areas of Stockton.

Further help for Parkfield, which is a mixture of owner-occupied properties and bedsits, has been forthcoming. The council recently won £3m over seven years from the Government's Neighbourhood Management Programme which aims to regenerate run-down areas.

A glossy booklet setting out its aims describes "an opportunity to reduce the impact of the long-term decline of the Parkfield area, improve the life chances of local residents and remove the barriers to success which, for too long, a wide range of public agencies have failed to address". The booklet talks about developing a "positive image strategy" and an "asylum seekers strategy".

It all sounds very impressive but, when it comes to the crunch, will it really have the desired effect? Janet Tong, who has been appointed neighbourhood manager in Parkfield, is upbeat. "The area has become more disadvantaged and this is why various people have got together," she says. "But the signs are good. The willingness of both residents and organisation representatives to work together to find solutions is very promising."

The programme aims to put an additional two police officers on the beat and to employ a new community liaison officer, who will act as a bridge between the police and residents. It is also funding two extra community wardens, street lighting improvements and a dedicated cleansing team.

Ian Thompson, head of regeneration and economic development at Stockton council, says it is trying to target areas of greatest need with funding. He says: "Local residents, of course, want to see their street looking nice. But a lot of improvement programmes are not physical things, therefore they are not easily visible. They are things like training schemes and schemes for young people.

"All our projects are monitored regularly and progress is being made. We do continue to be successful in attracting money from a number of sources which must demonstrate that we are on the right track."

Meanwhile, back in Alliance Street, some houses are being renovated and sold by private landlords. George Sutherland, project manager with Swatch - a residents' action group - says people with drugs problems are being asked to leave before being evicted by the council.

He is keen to paint a more positive picture of Alliance Street and the community that surrounds it. He says: "Things are improving and we keep pushing."

Not everyone, though, is convinced. One elderly resident, who is reluctant to give her name, complains about having had her phone cut off for 11 days after a stolen car crashed into a telegraph pole. "I just wish they would knock the whole street down and start again," she says.