City that is struggling to cope with uncontrolled migration
THE impact of uncontrolled migration in Peterborough is visible as soon as you get off the train.
The historic Great Northern Hotel, with its grand ballroom and elegant dining room, is now home to 80 male asylum seekers.
They congregate in groups around the 170-year-old building on Station Approach, and can be an intimidating presence for visitors and residents alike.
Across this city, the problems caused by uncontrolled migrant numbers are well known, as the pressures of an increasing population put a strain on local services.
The 2021 census showed 28.2 per cent of Peterborough residents were born outside of the UK. This is a 7.6 per cent increase on a trend identified a decade earlier.
Added to this are the many thousands of migrants who have made their way to the city to claim asylum.
Robert and Janine Thorpe, both 63, have lived in the Orton area of the city for 15 years.
Mrs Thorpe no longer feels comfortable walking around on her own. She said: “There are too many men standing around in groups, it’s quite intimidating. What happens to the wives and daughters left behind?”
Her husband, who served almost 14 years in the Household Calvary, works as a lorry driver.
He said: “When I came out of the Army, we didn’t qualify for a council house as I was seen as making myself deliberately homeless.
“You look around now at all the one and two-bedroom flats they’re building in the city centre, social housing for migrants. It’s unfair and taxpayers know it.
“I work with lots of men who have migrated here. They don’t invest here.
“They work for 10 years or so and then take their money to buy a house in their own country.
“My job is hard and the hours don’t appeal to younger Brits. But if the working conditions were changed and adapted, I think those
younger men would come forward. You have to ask what exactly is the Government doing?
“I think we should have snipers puncturing these boats as they get ready to leave the French shore.”
David Newling, 66, has lived in Peterborough for more than 40 years.
He said: “Immigration is now at record levels. It’s a joke.We pay the French but they ignore us and just take the money.
“You can’t get a doctor’s appointment, kids start school not knowing how to speak English. We are taking well over any acceptable numbers.”
The number of people living in Peterborough is now around 215,700, with 69 per cent born in England.
In the 2011 census, Peterborough was home to 140,500 residents, of which 77 per cent said they were born in England.
Poland is the next most represented nation, with 8,300 residents (3.9 per cent) reporting it as their country of birth.
This figure was up from around 6,700 in 2011, which at the time represented 3.6 per cent of the population of the city.
The number of Peterborough residents born in Lithuania rose from just over 3,700 in 2011 (two per cent of the local population) to just under 7,900 in 2021 (3.6 per cent). There has also been a big jump in the number of Asian people living in the city.
In 2021, 14.3 per cent of Peterborough residents identified their ethnic group within the “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh” category, up from 11.7 per cent in 2011.
Tolerant
The 2.6 percentage point change was the largest increase among ethnic groups in this area.
Around 12.2 per cent described themselves as Muslim, up from 9.4 per cent in the 2011 census.
Homeless duo Luis, 48, and Casimino, 45, from Portugal, said they do not work.
The pair rely on the local Portuguese church to help them.
Luis said: “What can I do? I would like to stop drinking and work.
“But there’s no help to do that, no rehabilitation schemes and no work for me.
“I would like a home, and they are building more here in the centre, maybe there’s one for me.
“We came here because Britain is a great country.
“Very generous and tolerant. In Portugal, we are not so tolerant.”
Paul Bristow, the Conservative MP for Peterborough, is leading the fight against the Government’s use of the Great Northern Hotel for asylum seekers.
He said: “Year after year migration statistics of hundreds of thousands to the UK is just not sustainable. Not for local schools, doctors’ surgeries and local housing needs. And not for Peterborough.”