Do you know how many East Europeans there are in Warrington?

3,000 springs to mind, no idea why though

If that is true, that is about 1.5% of the population. Miniscule.

I may be thinking of a story about 3,000 Poles coming over. It may have been 3,000 had moved here up to the point of the story.

I may be wrong though, but I can't see the Eastern Europeans and Iraqi Kurds of the town coming up to anything more than about 5%

That would be an interesting statistic. When I used to be involved in renting properties we were pretty much solely dealing with Polish tenants and companies were shipping them over wholesale to populate the workforce in various warehouses.

It seems half the bus drivers are Polish as well.

I don't suppose specific stats would be taken as they have the right to work in the UK as EU citizens.

I'd be astounded if 5% of Warrington's population was non-British.

It will be more than that. I know of one company alone that brought over 300. However many only stay for six months or so before returning home as their employment contracts finish.

And if there was only 3000 I doubt anyone would have bothered opening a specialist Polish grocery store. You want to try shopping in Lidl as well; no-one seems to speak English in there.

And another point; I know that the number of kids in St Philips Primary School who are registered as of non-British origin (bear in mind this is a Church Of England funded school) was 15% as it stated that on the Ofsted report.

And whilst I am on this subject, why is the lack of diversity in Warrington seen as a negative point? I bet it would only cause tension.

I seem to remember you said you dealt with properties at the lower end of the market. Hardly surprising then that you saw a disproportionate number of Poles.

Because Warrington is insular.

Possibly but like I said, probably no more so than any other Northern town. And just because a town like Burnley has an Asian population doesn't make it any less insular. Have you ever been there? I would say it was worse than here.

Warrington will still attract people from outside the area that will continue to be the case as this area seems to be suffering less during the downturn and there still appears to be plenty of employment opportunites.

Easy to knock this town but it has a lot going for it.