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Letter: Pregnancy factor is strain on Peterborough services
I have to say I agree with your reader’s letter (Failings are not due to Immigrants, Thursday, February 9, 2012).
I don’t believe immigrants are solely to blame, as many believe, and to think any differently is extremely naïve, in my opinion.
The fact that many have brought much-needed skilled work to Peterborough, or, indeed, moved back to their country of origin or ‘moved on’, seems a rarely accepted fact.
Another fact is that any increase in the population of an area such as ours, regardless of country of origin, is always going to create issues.
For instance, I read recently that many people from the south are moving to the area and East Anglia in general, simply to escape the high cost of living – the commute to London and other areas being easily achievable, while the lower rents and generally slower pace of life is an attractive one . . . as it always has been.
Indeed, we seem to be turning into a nation of migrants, regardless of heritage, actively encouraged by the government to “move to more affordable areas” or “move where the work is”.
Another possible reason, apart from the lack of homes, schools and other amenities being built or maintained, could be attributed to the amount of young girls who seem to leave school only to find they are pregnant within months.
I don’t mean to pass judgement, I just state what I know and see from experience, but walk around the city centre, catch a bus and you can’t fail to notice this is a huge issue in Peterborough and has been for years.
In fact, since my daughter left school almost six years ago, and even while at school, the numbers of her friends and associates who became (or currently are) pregnant, is an issue we should be addressing more than we are.
Where are the opportunities, the aspirations, the support for our children? Or am I to be accused of seeing a problem that isn’t there?
Either way, I find this and the low morale in general around Peterborough very sad and worrying.
I’m not saying we are the only city that has to cope with being a popular escape from the rising cost of living, and I’m not saying that high pregnancy rates, be it teenage or otherwise, are to blame either.
But, surely the two issues I’ve highlighted must have some bearing on Peterborough’s ever- increasing population, and, in turn, its services too?
MARIA
Peterborough
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
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