Town leaders have responded after The Times slated Basildon as a place bursting with criminals.
Journalist Robin Young's article panning the town was accompanied by a cartoon which showed the Queen - who visited Basildon on Friday - staring at a pile of bricks where her Rolls Royce's two front wheels once were.
Mr Young described St Martin's Church, where the Queen opened the country's first glass belltower, as resembling an aircraft hangar.
Canon Lionel Webber, rector of Basildon and St Martin's Church, took Mr Young's comments as a "personal insult". He added: "It's the first time I've heard the church referred to as an aircraft hangar."
Supt Denis Sheppard, of Basildon police, said: "The visit celebrated people working together to make Basildon a better place and marked the fact that we're winning the battle."
He added that Mr Young "perhaps lacked vision" by not appreciating the architectural diversity of the belltower, church and nearby council offices.
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