|PIC1|The Bishop of Blackburn has appealed to members of his congregation to stay at home this summer and take a closer look around their own back-streets.

The Rt Rev Bishop Nicholas Reade urged affluent Anglicans to take to their back streets as a form of “alternative tourism”, reports the BBC.

He suggested that the wealthy parishes “might spend an afternoon in the back streets of Blackpool, Burnley or Preston...using local people as guides”.

The Bishop of Blackburn added: “Try some ‘alternative tourism’ – swap statistics, hear the stories, learn the issues.”

Bishop Reade said this alternative form of tourism was the best way to understand the anti-poverty report, Faithful Cities, released by the Church of England at the end of last month.

|TOP|The report challenged the government to do more to tackle growing inequalities between Britain’s wealthy and poor, and also called on churches to do more to tackle the “thoughtless accumulation of wealth which ignores the needs of the poor, both globally and locally”.

Faithful Cities was particularly controversial because it implied that the Government was deliberately using destitution as a deterrent to would-be immigrants and asylum seekers.

“The Government must lead rather than follow public opinion on immigration,
refugee and asylum policy. Specifically, asylum seekers should be allowed to
sustain themselves and contribute to society through paid work,” the report said.

“It is unacceptable to use destitution as a tool of coercion when dealing with ‘refused’ asylum seekers.”

The report will be debated at next month’s Church of England General Synod which takes place in York.