top of that, the retired college lecturer believes a total of £90 million has been added to the value of the area’s city-owned housing stock.

It all paints a healthy picture of a suburb where residents say they are the most satisfied in the city, according to a survey.

While it would be easy to assume that satisfaction is born out of falling crime levels and the sight of hundreds of planters and hanging baskets which have replaced the prostitutes on street corners, a report by the right-wing think tank Demos suggests it stems from street level democracy.

The work of the forum has been underpinned by about 20 residents’ associations, some covering only a few streets but wielding genuine influence and powers of persuasion.

That is a fact recognised by DemosDarren Wilson, the Missouri police officer who killed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, has stoked further anger after saying in an interview that he could not have done anything differently to have prevented Brown's death.



In his first public statements, which were broadcast by the ABC news channel on Tuesday, Wilson claimed his actions were justified because he feared for his life.

Wilson, who shot dead the 18-year-old a total of six times on August 9 according to autopsy reports also said he had a "clean conscience" and that he was "simply doing his job".

Al Jazeera's Daniel Lak, reporting from Ferguson, said that "community leaders were greatly disappointed by Wilson's lack of remorse".

The officer's latest statements came two days after a grand jury ruled that there was not enough probable