Problems of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale are no worse than other town and cities, a former council chief claimed today, despite the major scandal over Asian men grooming young white girls for sex in the town.

Cheryl Eastwood, the former executive director for children's services at Rochdale Borough Council, told MPs: "It's a serious issue and a big problem. But it's a big problems in many places, not just Rochdale."

Ms Eastwood, who left the local authority in May, was being questioned by the Home Affairs Select Committee which is inquiring into localised child grooming.

A report into the scandal revealed in late September that social workers, police and prosecutors missed opportunities to stop a child exploitation ring abusing young girls in the Greater Manchester town.

Deficiencies in the way children's social care responded to the victims' needs were caused by "patchy" training of frontline staff, the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board (RBSCB) said in its 29-page report into child sexual exploitation.

The review came four months after nine Asian men were convicted of the systematic grooming and sexual abuse of white girls in Heywood and Rochdale.

The trial resulted in a national debate over the role of gangs of largely Asian men in grooming white girls.

Ms Eastwood told the committee that despite the recent "very serious and appalling" case, she had not seen any evidence to suggest the problem of child sexual exploitation was worse in Rochdale than other places.

She admitted she had not met any of the victims from the case but offered an apology to them during her evidence to the committee.

"Certainly, things that were done in 2007-08 were poor, very poor. My heart goes out to the young people who got the response they did and I'm very sorry for the way they were treated," she said.

Steve Garner, former head of children's social care at Rochdale Borough Council, told MPs he was aware of 90 cases of child sex exploitation in town in the last two years, including 15 cases of young people who were in care.

Mr Garner, who left the council after the publication of the review into the scandal, said frontline workers had not identified the risk of exploitation.

"Where children's social care staff have missed opportunities to provide greater protection...I certainly apologise to the young people," he said.

The picture which emerged from the report into the scandal was one of vulnerable young girls, some as young as 10, being targeted for sexual abuse, being written off by those in authority who believed the girls were "making their own choices" and "engaging in consensual sexual activity".

In reality, girls were being raped and often violently beaten.

The judge who sentenced the nine men said they treated their victims "as though they were worthless and beyond any respect".

The gang received jail sentences of between four and 19 years. The offences happened in and around Rochdale in 2008 and 2009.

The five girls - aged between 13 and 15 - were given alcohol, food and money in return for sex, but there were times when violence was used.

Police said the victims were from "chaotic", "council estate" backgrounds and as many as 50 girls could have been victims of the gang.

The committee took evidence from Lancashire Constabulary, which has been praised for its work in tackling child grooming and sexual exploitation.

Detective Superintendent Ian Critchley told MPs there had been around 100 prosecutions in the county so far this year for child sexual exploitation.

This figure differed "markedly" from South Yorkshire, which had reported no prosecutions in the same period, the committee's chair Keith Vaz said.