Communities councillor

says "protest march

won't solve our

problems"

Last week’s to-ing and fro-ing over November’s proposed march protesting at the level of migration in Boston generated comments left, right, and centre – including from ourselves.
Last week’s piece headed “Talking without listening…” has brought a response from Councillor Mike Gilbert, Boston’s Portfolio Holder for Community Development – and therefore the man in the firing line when it comes to issues such as migration.
He writes:
“I thought I should comment on your recent views.
“I certainly don't comment for the sake of it simply to sound like a politician, I comment because I believe something needs to be said and I try and be balanced and objective; I don't want to stir up feelings one way or the other.
“I am very aware that we have some complex issues to deal with in Boston - and by Boston I mean the Boston communities and the Borough Council they have elected. “Like you, your commentators, and the Conservative administration, I am acutely aware that an influx of people into a small local community can cause anxiety, and clearly, as I have said in my comments, place a stress on scarce resources.
“We know this and as a council we do what we can to mitigate the more problematic issues associated with this - i.e. rough sleeping etc. We have to rely on partners like police and other public services to do their bit too. Migrants come here to work and there are three issues here:
1) European and British Law allows it
2) There is work - businesses will employ them
3) They want to take advantage of 2 and 3 above and who can blame them - after all Boston is a lovely town with good schools and a hospital, etc.
“Whilst I do very much sympathize with your commentators and the people who want to march in protest (I can empathize too as I live in the town centre in Tower Street) my comment on the march is this; do we want Boston to be seen as the hub of a campaign that really should be taking place in London or Brussels?
“We have migrants who are very much part of our community, and we need to ensure that relations remain harmonious even though we accept there are pressures on services.
“Other places have these pressures too - Hereford for example. We don't want inter community relations to deteriorate with the risk of making worse any tensions in our town.
“Finally, a couple of points about the economics of this situation.
“Firstly we do need migrants or someone to top up our local labour force.
“Some years ago some of this extra labour came from Sheffield or Nottinghamshire and was illegal. We had factories raided, etc.
“Now the migrants are here they need to live here as they can't simply get in a van and drive 50 miles up the road to go home.
“We do have people here who are not prepared to work on the land or in factories; someone has to do this work.
“Unfortunately 13 years of Labour government has persuaded people that this work is not good enough for them, and unfortunately it makes more sense to stay on the dole. “So in summary, it makes financial sense for the migrant communities to come here and it makes financial sense for unemployed locals to avoid the work the migrants do. “How is a march going to sort this out?
“What Boston as a town needs to do is get more resources - not more bad publicity."

Tomorrow: We look at Council Leader Peter Bedford's performance on last Friday's Peter Levy Show.

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