THE TOWN CAME TO NATIONAL ATTENTION, albeit briefly, after a BBC documentary in July 2010, called 'The Day The Immigrants Left' set out to examine the vexed issues of jobs and the migrant workforce. Its screenplay consisted of finding a cartoonish collection of local ne'er-do-wells, and putting the, on screen, into jobs where most of the workforce were migrants. The locals were portrayed (rightly of wrongly) as bigoted, work-shy buffoons, while the migrants alongside whom they worked (or failed to) came over as articulate and hard-working over-achievers. Cynics suggest that this was the BBC's traditional PC and Left-Wing bias enjoying its finest hour.

So, who has it right? The Daily Mail, with its talk of a 'Baltic Mafia', and terrified locals unable to walk the streets of the town where they grew up, for fear of insult and assault from migrants? Or is it some elements of local media and politicians, who protest that the town is a peaceful and positive place, where everyone peacefully co-exists? This blog will seek to find some sort of truth behind the spin, and will aim, first and foremost, to engage people, and get them talking to each other.