But the Prime Minister was betraying not only his real feelings about the worries of millions of Britons, but also his ignorance of what has been going on in the northern town - which provides an acute case study of issues afflicting the whole nation. For ethnic populations in Rochdale, ten miles north of Manchester, have been rising so fast that the Home Office has been warned it is at risk of race riots, and the council has had to draw up a special housing plan for minorities. The Falinge area of Rochdale which had the highest number of benefit claimants in Britain Government research last year showed more than a quarter of primary school pupils in Rochdale spoke English as a foreign language - and named one school. Heybrook Primary, where every single one of the 453 pupils spoke English as a second language. Large scale immigration to the town began in the post-war years, when thousands of Asians arrived to work in dozens of cotton mills. Gillian Duffy was called a 'bigoted woman' by Gordon Brown when she quizzed him about immigration in Rochdale The mills have now gone, but the Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims who came to work in them have remained, along with their children and grandchildren. And census figures have shown that while the white population is actually falling by 2.3 per cent a decade, thanks to high birth rates the Asian population is doubling every 20 years. One church has reacted by offering services in Urdu and Punjabi. Statistics produced in 2006 counted 16,000 people of Pakistani-origin in Rochdale, one in twelve of the population, along with 3,100 Bangladeshis, and another 8,000 non-whites. On top of that there were another 5,000 eastern Europeans and other non-British whites. Yet even in the four years since those figures were produced, the ethnic minority numbers have grown rapidly. For the opening of European Union borders has led to ever larger numbers of Poles and other eastern Europeans coming to take up low-paid jobs in the town. The Daily Mail found that numerous Poles were working in a Woolworths depot in Rochdale, while sleeping up to 13-at-a-time in cramped terrace houses. Rochdale Borough Council recently produced a special 'Black and Minority Ethnic' housing strategy for the town 'in recognition of the increasing ethnic diversity in Rochdale' and the minorities' 'level of housing need'. In addition to the Asians established locally for decades, the document goes on, there are 'newer and emerging ethnic minority groups' making up the 'refugee and asylum seeker communities for Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries', as well as eastern Europeans, mainly Poles. The council document notes: 'In 2007, Rochdale borough had a black and minority ethnic population of 12 per cent, which is projected to increase to 20 per cent by 2021.' Boarded up shops in Rochdale's main shopping strip last year Three years ago it was reported that taxpayers were funding the refurbishment of 500 homes a year for asylum seekers in Rochdale - at a cost of £3,000 a time, with fittings including, freezers, microwaves and even ash trays. Even before extra strain was placed on resources by the arrival of east Europeans and asylum seekers, recently released Home Office papers showed that in 2001 Rochdale was highlighted as potential race riot 'hot-spot' following violent anarchy in nearby Oldham. And race relations in the town caused problems for Labour in the last General Election too, when it was claimed a raid on 25 suspected illegal immigrants on a council estate inundated by Africans had been postponed to avoid embarrassing Tony Blair.Rochdale under pressure:
How the Home Office was warned Gillan Duffy's town is at risk of race riots
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Last updated at 1:31 AM on 29th April 2010
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