Groups and residents in the Little Horton area of Bradford - dubbed England's second most deprived ward - have been urged to work together to improve their community.

The plea came from Health Minister John Denham during a visit yesterday to see how local people and Bradford Council are planning to revitalise the area with Government cash.

He saw the Impact Project for homeless young people, the Hutson Street Project and the West Bowling Community Health Project, where he talked to staff about the list of community needs they are drawing up.

Bradford will bid for up to £50 million for Little Horton over the next ten years under the Government's New Deal for Communities scheme.

The city has already won Health Action Zone status, bringing more than £2 million to tackle such health problems associated with the underprivileged as diabetes and heart disease.

Mr Denham said it would be years before it was known how much +difference the Health Action Zones were making:

"The Little Horton ward, which includes 12,000 people living in Park Lane, Marshfields and West Bowling, is the second most deprived ward in England," he said.

"Unemployment in Little Horton is twice the district rate - more than one in ten people are without a job - and deaths from coronary heart disease are higher than the district as a whole.

"That's why we've got to take tough action to deal with poor health here - and that means working together to benefit Bradford.

"It is a matter of trying to get the system working right so the people in the local community can shape the things which they think will make a difference.

"We are very dependent on people being involved and drawing in others locally. What we have to do in areas like this is to build people's self-confidence.

"People may have horrendous problems to face but if they get the confidence by knowing they are being listened to, they will see they can make a difference in their community.

"A New Deal for Communities could make a real impact on the lives of the people living in some of the poorest and most deprived communities - people who are being excluded from the things in life most take for granted."

Nighat Khan, a voluntary worker at the West Bowling Community Health Project, said after the Minister's visit: "It sounds very practical but I don't know how it's going to work.

"To get people involved you have to show them something's happening - something's being done about the crime, the housing and the drugs .

"So far, from the meetings that have been organised, you feel the New deal and the Health Action Zone will make a difference but we will only see it in three or four years' time."

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