Thread: UK: Immigrants Horrible Toll On Schools, Housing, Hospitals

Migrant city's cry for help: Anguished letter to Brown and Cameron reveals devastating toll of immigration on schools, housing and hospitals

By Sue Reid
Last updated at 9:25 AM on 10th April 2010
Comments 143

The impact of uncontrolled mass immigration on the fabric of British life was driven home to the party leaders yesterday.

A letter to Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg reveals in graphic detail the struggle of one community to cope.

It says public services - from schooling to housing, healthcare to police protection - are overstretched because councils have not been given the support they need.

Plea: Councillors in Peterborough sent anguished letters to (l-r) Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg about the number of migrants in their city

The letter, from two independent councillors in the Cambridgeshire city of Peterborough, spells out in a straightforward and measured way how a community which 'lived in peace and harmony' has been transformed.
Local schools are struggling to educate children who speak 27 different languages and health services are under unprecedented pressure. The councillors, Charles Swift and Keith Sharp, contrast the situation with that of a few years ago.

Then, they say, 'there was parental choice in education with school places. There was no homelessness. There were no problems with registering at the local doctors for health services.

'Everyone knew the local police officer and they were available at all times. People could walk the streets in safety and talk to their neighbours.'

The two men asked the party leaders for a reply, warning that the problem is a national one. But in another example of the way immigration issues have been brushed under the carpet, they have heard nothing.

The letter has been sent to Mr Brown and Mr Clegg three times since January 18, without any reply. David Cameron responded with an email from his correspondence secretary promising a reply from immigration spokesman Damian Green. Mr Swift and Mr Sharp are still waiting.

The two councillors represent North ward in Peterborough where 15 per cent of people are migrants, mainly from former Communist countries in Eastern Europe which are now EU members.

Their letter - which they also sent to constituents - was passed to the Daily Mail by a local resident concerned that its urgent message was being ignored.

The councillors say: 'At our local primary school, Fulbridge, which has a roll of 675 pupils, 27 different languages are spoken with only 200 of the pupils having English as a first language.

'The first-year reception class has 90 pupils, of which only 17 are white British. Every day new arrivals are turned away.

'Registration at the local doctors' surgery has rocketed with more than 90 per cent of the new arrivals being from the EU. There has been a substantial increase in women who are pregnant.

'The Health Service and Primary Care Trust in the city has overspent by millions in the past year.'

A key issue is the Government's failure to support councils.

But Mr Swift and Mr Sharp make clear that the local authority cannot track all new arrivals - crucial information in assessing what they need.

They say there were only four EU citizens on the local electoral roll in 2004. Now there are 537 and 'we know there are substantially more here'.

The councillors also voiced the local fears that immigration is fuelling a rise in crime.



They write: 'We had four police houses in the ward years ago. Everyone knew and respected the local constable. Now we have muggings, robberies, burglaries and neighbour disputes. We have prostitutes, drug dealers and an ever-increasing number of people who drive without road tax or insurance.'

Some 16,000 migrants, many seeking farm work, have moved to the Peterborough area since 2004. Immigrant communities account for 64 per cent of the population growth.

Details of the letter emerged a day after the Daily Mail revealed shocking figures showing that nearly every job created under Labour has gone to a foreign worker. Some 98.5 per cent of 1.67million new posts went to immigrants.

In their letter, Mr Swift and Mr Sharp say the arrival of so many migrants has left Peterborough's housing system in chaos, with immigrants sleeping rough and relying on the Salvation Army for food.

They say many properties have been bought by speculators and turned into multioccupancy dwellings let to immigrants.

'The consequence is that our housing waiting lists have rocketed and our homeless hostels are full.'

This reinforces reports of migrants living in makeshift huts along the local river and slaughtering swans to eat.

The councillors' concerns were echoed last night in a Harris poll for the Daily Mail, which reveals that seven out of ten voters are 'very worried' about the scale of immigration and believe it is a 'significant cause of unrest'.

Some 63 per cent think the influx of two million immigrants under Labour has been a 'bad thing' and three out of four want a tough limit on new arrivals.

Mr Swift, 79, a former train driver and trade unionist who was awarded the OBE for his council services, said last night: 'The political leaders must listen to ordinary people.

'There must be a control on migrant numbers coming in. It is what people want. They feel the situation has got out of hand. I have spoken to rocksolid Labour supporters, rocksolid Conservative supporters. They don't know how to vote.'

Sir Andrew Green, head of the Migrationwatch campaign group, called the letter 'a vivid and convincing account of the impact of immigration'. He added: 'It is shameful that these councillors should have received no substantive reply'.

Last night a Tory spokesman said a reply from Mr Green is due to be sent before MPs' offices close on Monday.

A spokesman for Mr Brown said: 'We are not currently aware of this correspondence but of course Gordon will answer any questions that are asked of him.'

Nick Clegg's spokesman said: 'We are very sorry these councillors have not received a reply. They will be getting one as soon as possible.'



City that can't cope any more: While this Czech family are thrilled with their new council house, such largesse is ruining communities
Helena Horvatova is proud of her seven children. She lines them up in the back garden of her terrace house and explains that the youngest, aged four months, is called Kevin.
'It is a very British name. We want him to grow up British,' says the 27-year-old Czech mother, who arrived in Peterborough two weeks ago. In broken English, she continues: 'We came to Britain because we wanted a better life for all of our children.'
Mrs Horvatova pats little Kevin on his head, before plopping down on a battered bench in the middle of her garden, which is littered with rubbish.


The Horvatovas: Mother Helena (sitting) with her children Nicola, baby Kevin, Frankie, Marek, Helena, David and Natalia
Outside the kitchen door there are grubby children's clothes and some beer cans.
Inside the house sits Mrs Horvatova's husband, Frankie. He is 29 and also is able to speak only a few words of English.

'He does not go to work,' his wife says, as her ten-year-old daughter, Nicola, tries to help as an interpreter.
As the other children (Frankie, 12, Helena, nine, Marek, seven, Natala, six, and David, four) clamour for attention, their mother explains: 'My husband is claiming the Jobseekers' allowance. Back in our country he was a school cleaner, but in Peterborough they say there are no vacancies.
'The council has been very good to us. It has given us a house because we have the children. It only has three bedrooms, though, and we would like more.

'The only problem is our oldest boy has to go to school five miles away. It is difficult to get him there, but we have a car and my husband drives.
'The schools nearby are full of children who came to Peterborough before us,' she says.
I went to Peterborough after receiving a copy of a letter originally sent to the prime minister and leaders of the other main political parties by two independent councillors.

The letter revealed how the city's public services are under strain and struggling to cope with levels of immigration. The councillors begged the politicians for help.

Officially, the Horvatovas are among 10,000 new eastern European immigrants who have turned up in the city in the past six years.

But that is a conservative count. The East Of England Regional Assembly believes 16,000 have settled in Peterborough since Britain opened its borders to migrants from the former communist bloc countries in 2004.
Yet local people are convinced this figure is a gross underestimation of the tally of foreigners arriving in this beautiful and once quintessentially English city, with a Norman cathedral where Henry VIII's first wife Catherine of Aragon is buried.
'There must be at least 20,000,' said one GP with a surgery near the city centre. 'We can tell because the total number of patients we have registered has gone up by 3,000 in just a few years. Most of the new patients are from Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.'



Boarded up: Some of Peterborough's many derelict houses, which are used by the homeless
At this surgery staff are also overwhelmed with increasing numbers of pregnant women.

'This whole place is about to explode with babies,' explained a nurse at a clinic, half-a-mile from Mrs Horvatov's home.
'It is a common thing for 14, 15 and 16-year-old girls who have arrived from Slovakia and Lithuania to come in pregnant or wanting fertility advice. We tell them it is illegal in this country to have sexual intercourse at their age.
'We suspect they want babies because they know it will lead to a house and child benefits. There are so many foreign girls having babies that it will change the face of Peterborough.'
That change, it would seem, has already begun. Last month, it was revealed migrant workers in Peterborough are killing swans to eat and are also preying illegally on fish.
Local anglers claimed ' legally-protected swans' were being 'butchered' by immigrants who are 'raping' the city's waterways by snaring the birds, battering them to death with iron bars and roasting them on open fires on the bank of the River Nene.
Witnesses say migrants camping in woods are using inhumane methods to kill fish, such as long lines with multiple hooks, which are left in the water overnight and cause a slow and painful death.

While it should be stressed that many of the new arrivals work very hard for low wages - doing jobs local people are not prepared to do - there are many who have quickly learned how to work the benefits system.

Each day at 1pm, when the Inland Revenue Office at Hereward House opens, a queue of girls speaking foreign tongues snakes down the road.
Their buggies and prams crowd the pavement as they wait to sign on for tax credits and child benefits - as they are entitled to under EU law.
Yet, despite the availability of generous benefits, there is a growing foreign underclass in Peterborough, which is said to be the fastest growing multi-ethnic community in Britain.
People sleep rough in derelict houses, alleyways, garden sheds or under crude shelters made of wood and plastic sheeting in the parks - anywhere they can find a place to rest their weary heads at night.
These are the homeless European migrants that Labour promised this week (an announcement cynically made on the opening day of the election campaign) would be thrown out of Britain, because they cannot support themselves financially.



Slovakians Ivan, Monica and Vadim in their squat
According to EU rules, foreigners can live in other member countries for up to three months, but can only remain if they are financially independent, working or registered as students.
Peterborough, with its considerable migration problems, has been chosen as the pilot scheme for the expulsion project.
This week, I saw two uniformed UK Border Agency officers (plus a policeman and two Peterborough Council staff) search three empty properties in Thistlemoor Road. They found no one.
Yet the stench of urine inside, the abandoned bed clothes on the floor and a pile of unwashed cups in the kitchen sinks was proof someone had been staying there until very recently.
When I pointed out that three penniless and jobless Slovakians were living in a property just along the street, the officers got in their cars and drove away.
As a result, Ivan, 37, Monica, 30, and Vadim, 42, managed to escape detection. Inside a shabby, boarded up house, they have made a home.
There are two single beds and a couple of dirty rugs on the concrete floor downstairs. Through the rotting roof you can see the sky.
'We came here 20 days ago,' says Monica, with tears in her eyes.
'I worked yesterday for the first time - getting £10 for doing cleaning at a house.
'We have nothing apart from what we have found on rubbish tips. We try to keep clean and have bought a few bars of soap. The only thing I have eaten today is a bag of grapes.'
Why Ivan, Monica and Vadim have left home and journeyed across Europe to live such a squalid existence is hard to understand.
'We knew the name of Peterborough from people in Slovakia,' says Monica in pitifully bad English while tossing back her mane of black hair.
'They said we could get everything here. There are no jobs in Slovakia. We don't want to go back and we will work hard.'
Thousands of east European migrants were drawn to Peterborough 20 years ago, attracted by jobs picking and packing fruit and vegetables, grown on the flat fenlands of East Angli.
According the East Of England Regional Authority, an estimated 60 local employment agencies target migrants from the old communist bloc nations to work in agriculture.
The employment is seasonal, poorly paid and back-breakingly hard. Few Britons will contemplate doing it.
From the spring until the autumn, the work allows foreigners to eke out a living. But during winter, many become increasingly desperate.
Vadim takes up the story. He has a bruised cheek and a bloodshot left eye. 'We came here to earn money,' he says.
'It has not been good for us. We asked some Ukrainians renting a house down the road to take us in, to at least let us sleep on the floor. They banged me to the ground.'
This group's wretched tale is typical. Peterborough simply cannot cope with such a huge influx of foreigners - particularly at a time of economic crisis when the indigenous families are struggling in the jobs market and public services are threatened with years of cuts.
The city's housing list is longer than at any time since World War II. There are nearly 7,000 families waiting for accommodation.
At the housing office, 95 per cent of the people who are seen by officials do not speak English and interpreters (paid £30 an hour) are on hand to help out.
Meanwhile, primary school teachers say they are struggling to cope with the increasing numbers of pupils who speak Slavic languages.
One 32-year-old teacher told me this week: 'Their parents believe in education, but the children are arriving in such vast numbers that even the most dedicated of us wonder how this will all end.'
It was three years ago that local MP Stewart Jackson raised Peterborough's social problems during a debate in the House of Commons.
'There are suburbs which were settled and peaceful, if not affluent,' he said.
'They are now the centre of mass migration. They are becoming ghettoised.
'There has been a massive increase in the number of houses in multiple occupation, some with ten people. Their demand on public services grows weekly.
'Neighbour disputes are rife. The police try to keep disparate communities from conducting turf wars, which prevents them from tacking routine crime.'
Peterborough has a history of immigration. However, until recently, the numbers were small enough for most incomers to integrate happily.
Originally, Italians arrived to work in the city's brick factories. By the Eighties, Pakistanis came to be taxi drivers, run restaurants and build property empires, buying up streets of the terraced houses which they now let out room by room to the new wave of migrants. But this time, things are different.
As the MP warned: ' Resentment, anger and hostility is rising in the host communities - the white British, AfroCaribbeans and Pakistanis alike. There are enormous potential problems brewing for Peterborough.'
Prescient words. And what a pity no one was listening.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/electio ... ation.html

The UK has built it's own tower of Babel....just like us.