The New Listener

Two Peterborough councillors have written to the leaders of the three main political parties to complain about immigration levels.  The Executive Director of Operations Paul Phillipson comments on the subject. Broadcast at 08:10 on Friday January 22nd 2010 in Paul Stainton’s Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Peterborough.

PS: Our top story today, two Peterborough councillors have written to the leaders of the three main political parties to highlight how immigration is  affecting the city’s services. Earlier Charlie Swift told us why he’s taking the action he is. (TAPE)
CS: The whole point of what we’re trying to stress is to stop this silly business of walking round hospitals for twenty minutes, and going round schools having all these silly photographs taken. They want to come to Peterborough. They want to get to live in a real world, and we want some answers to these questions, and let’s start being honest open and straight and above the board, and realise that the position that not only Peterborough the North Ward is getting into, but many other parts of the country.(LIVE)
PS: Well Councillor Swift as he said there represents the North Ward, which has seen the number of EU citizens rise from just four, five years ago, to five hundred and thirty seven now. The local school in the North Ward is Fulbridge Primary. Headteacher Ian Erskine says the rise in immigration means the school has twenty seven different languages, and cannot cater for all the local children.(TAPE)
IE: The other issue around the area is that there’s been such an influx even continuing now of European families coming into this area, that the local authority have calculated that we have ninety children in each year group in our school, they’ve calculated that there’s probably a hundred and forty children in the area. So that means there’s fifty children not getting places at their local school. (LIVE)
PS: Sounds incredibly pressurised, doesn’t it? So how badly are the services being affected in the rest of the city? Paul Phillipson is from Peterborough City Council. Morning Paul.
PP: Good morning Paul.
PS: Some shocking really figures, and some shocking stories really of how immigration is impacting on the people of the North Ward, on the services in the North Ward. What do you think about what Charles Swift had to say first of all? Continue reading “Paul Phillipson on Peterborough”