No shelter from the storm

One of (the very few) upsides of the coronavirus pandemic was the concerted effort to get rough sleepers off the streets. Sadly, but perhaps inevitably, as lockdown has eased the problem is rearing its head again - a walk down Long Causeway and Bridge Street is punctuated once more with the sight of poor souls huddled in shop doorways.

And it’s not just the city centre, last week the PT website reported how a man had set up home in a bus shelter on Lincoln Road, Peterborough. This sad scene has echoes of Peterborough’s most famous rough sleeper, Nobby The Tramp, who sadly died earlier this year. Nobby, famously set up home in a bus shelter in Oundle Road. Legend has it, it was given its own postcode as Nobby was sent letters and gifts from around the globe.

It is to the eternal credit of Peterborough people that they took Nobby to their hearts but a downside of his story is that it sometimes romanticised the plight of the rough sleeper. A look at the picture above shows there is nothing remotely romantic about life on the streets.