NICOLA Sturgeon has been forced to defend the management of a run-down area the heart of her constituency after repeated complaints from residents.

The First Minister used a first-person piece in a Sunday newspaper to insist she was working on problems in Govanhill in her Glasgow Southside seat.

She also denied rumours that the area’s tenements are to be bulldozed.

However residents dismissed her efforts as a shallow public relations exercise.

Protestors have previously stuck ‘missing’ posters on lampposts accusing Ms Sturgeon of neglecting the area, which has a reputation for bad housing, squalor and crime.

Ms Sturgeon said she was “well aware that Govanhill faces some very specific challenges”, and urged the whole community, including its significant immigrant population, to work together to address them.

She said there was a clampdown on rogue landlords, a unique cleansing service to fight fly-tipping, and new wheelie bins to help solve problems with “vermin”.

She also claimed a new cycle route was attracting people and commerce to the area, with new businesses opening up on Victoria Road, the main street through Govanhill.

“To be clear, there are no plans to demolish Govanhill as suggested,” she said.

But Fiona Jordan, of the Let’s Save Govanhill campaign group, said Ms Sturgeon’s comments reminded her of Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

She said: “That article is an exercise in damage limitation by Nicola Sturgeon and her PR team. In the real world, Nicola should tell us the outcomes for the millions of pounds that have been spent in Govanhill.

“It has been nothing more than a band-aid to cover up or deflect from her dereliction of duty and failure to manage Govanhill. She has overseen the creation of a ghetto in 21st century Scotland and we have to live in it.”