SERGEANT BRIAN HUGHES diversity and equality officer for the eastern area of Cheshire, on improving relationships with the Polish community in Crewe
Crewe is quite a small, insular town that hasn’t changed much over the years.
About four years ago, we had an influx of 500 migrant workers from East Timor. Next came hundreds, then thousands, of Polish workers. Crewe has had a Polish population since the Second World War, which is probably why it was so attractive to people looking for work. Agencies recruiting from Poland could say that Crewe has a Roman Catholic church and a Polish club.
We were starting to come across situations that were unacceptable to the community, such as people being dropped off in town in the middle of the night. The town shuts at night and there were no homeless centres or other facilities to deal with this. Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council called a meeting to discuss the issues arising from our growing migrant population. Agents from the police, Fire [Service], health, trade unions and businesses that employed migrant workers attended.
Several projects came out of that meeting, including the Migrant Workers Association and Webby’s, a centre for the Polish community, for which I helped to secure a £309,000 grant. A problem that needed to be addressed was the practice of businesses giving employment contracts linked to housing. Although not illegal, it meant that workers were moving every six weeks and had no chance to put down community roots. They also had the costs of moving and changing jobs frequently and were acquiring debts. They became vulnerable to being offered work that was below the agreed rate and off the books. Neighbours were concerned about seeing new faces every six weeks.
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We have been able to stop this practice by discussing the problems with the businesses that offered these contracts. Communities are more settled now. Three specialist Polish shops have been set up in the town and have been an absolute godsend for getting messages out to the Polish community.
We also had an issue with Polish people carrying knives, and there had been Pole-on-Pole stabbings. We ran an awareness campaign that included talking to English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) groups and to the Polish Association. It was virtually an overnight success.
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