‘We need to understand each other better’: Polish ambassador visits least integrated town in UK – Boston
The Polish ambassador to the UK has called for even closer co-operation between the two countries on a visit to Boston, a town with a significantly higher than average Eastern European population and one which is known for its perceived lack of integration. Arkady Rzegocki met with councillors, police and the Polish community during a…
Polish ambassador Arkady Rzegocki speaking to the Polish community in Boston, with MP Matt Warman and police officers listening. Photo: Lewis Foster for Lincolnshire Reporter
The Polish ambassador to the UK has called for even closer co-operation between the two countries on a visit to Boston, a town with a significantly higher than average Eastern European population and one which is known for its perceived lack of integration.
Arkady Rzegocki met with councillors, police and the Polish community during a visit to the Lincolnshire town, commonly referred to as the Brexit capital of the UK, on April 5.
Boston recorded the highest majority of Brexit voters in Britain, voting by 75.6% to leave the EU.
Lincolnshire as a county also voted decisively to leave in the referendum held on June 23 last year.
One of many Polish and European stores on West Street in Boston. Photo: Lewis Foster for Lincolnshire Reporter
Ambassador Rzegocki said: “I think we have to to make greater efforts to have better knowledge about each other.”
The ambassador also praised the contributions Polish people make to communities such as Boston, stating that the future of EU nationals living in the town needs to be settled within months, not years.
He added: “There’s about one million Poles in the UK – they work in the NHS, in shops, in agriculture, as well as in academia.
“I’m trying to encourage Polish people to come back to Poland. Our GDP is growing year-on-year, our economy is growing and we have low levels of unemployment.”
‘I feel part of this community’
Polish priest at St Mary’s Church in Boston, Stanislaw Kowalski. Photo: Lewis Foster for Lincolnshire Reporter
Stanislaw Kowalski is a priest at St Mary’s Church in Boston and came to the town in September 2015.
Contrary to perhaps popular belief, the priest has had positive experiences of Boston and how the Polish and local communities have integrated.
He told Lincolnshire Reporter: “The community is very dynamic, with ambition and a positive mentality.
“From my experiences, there is integration. I work with the local priests and the local community.
“I feel very comfortable here and feel part of this community.”
Despite speaking of the need for integration, the priest said that he was proud of being Polish and wanted to preserve his identity.
He said: “I’ve worked in the US, Canada, here in Great Britain and Ireland for 27 years. I know that integration is a very long process.
“Most Polish people want to stay here. They want to because their children are born here, go to schools here and they have good jobs.
“They are good workers, good people and they pay their taxes.”
Boston and Skegness MP Matt Warman. Photo: Lincolnshire Reporter
Boston and Skegness MP Matt Warman, who invited the ambassador to the town, added: “Boston has proportionally more Polish people living in it than anywhere else in the country.
“It’s very important that at the very highest levels we try and explain what the challenges and opportunities are of having that new and different population.”
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Lincolnshire’s frontline police officers are being offered doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that are left over at the end of a day.
Lincolnshire Police’s force control room will be called each day with the offer of spare vaccines that weren’t used throughout the day.
This is due to the vaccine not being able to be stored overnight, which would otherwise waste the doses.
Rather than throw them away, the NHS will offer any leftover vaccine doses to local frontline response officers.
When officers are given the first dose, a date for the second dose is set.
Chief Inspector for the North and South Kesteven beat area, Phil Vickers, tweeted about the offers on Wednesday morning.
Great to see that vaccines are not being wasted in Lincs
At the end of the day, when it becomes clear there are doses left over which can’t be stored overnight, @FCR_Lincs are called, and local front-line Response Officers offered the Vaccine
A spokesperson for Lincolnshire Police said: “A small number of our staff were vaccinated earlier this week after being offered vaccines that we were told could not be used.”
A man in his 40s was injured after an industrial incident in Holbeach on Wednesday morning.
Emergency services, along with an air ambulance, attended the scene of the incident on Park Road, which was reported to police at 10.47am on January 20.
The road was closed just after 11.30am.
Emergency services and an air ambulance attended the scene. | Photo: Dennis Vink
Police said the man’s injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.
No arrests have been made and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been notified.
Six in ten new COVID cases in Lincolnshire were with the new, more infectious variant in the first week of 2021.
The county council’s public health team said that by January 8, 59.2% of tests contained a variant of the virus — up from 36% in the last two weeks of 2020.
North East Lincolnshire’s latest epidemiology report says 50% of positive COVID tests contained the new variant in the first two weeks of January, up from 40% at the end of December.
The new strains of COVID-19 are believed to be up to 70% more transmissible than the first circulating form of the virus.
Professor Derek Ward, Lincolnshire County Council’s director for public health, said he expected the new variants to “push the old one out”.
“At some point in the future 100% or 98% of our cases will be the new variants,” he said.
“The key point is the new variants are out there in South Africa and Brazil, but the key messages stay the same.
“It is a stay at home lockdown and it doesn’t matter which one it is, you’re not going to get it if you don’t go out the door, and, if you are going to have to go outdoors then remember hands, face, space.”
Pfizer said that their vaccine is effective against one key mutation, called N501Y, found in both of the new variants spreading in Britain and South Africa.
Meanwhile, under 70s could begin receiving the vaccine this week, as more than 4 million doses have been administered, the government said.
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