Welcome to ‘Welsh-Pole’!

Welshpool has taken a clear step to officially recognising its tri-lingual society by issuing flyers about its new one-way road system in English, Welsh and Polish.

 

In a move that will spark plenty of local debate, the town council has said it will ‘do everything within its powers’ to ensure every Welshpool resident is aware of the changes being made on Sunday night, ready for Monday morning.

 

And with unofficial estimations that up to a fifth of the town’s population now originate from the Eastern European country, the council said it made sense to print the information in three languages.

 

“We want everyone to be aware of what’s happening Sunday night,” said Town Clerk Robert Robinson. “There is no margin for error and a lot of the Polish community live in properties along the one-way route. There will be no excuse for any resident saying ‘we didn’t know’ if their car is parked in the wrong place or facing the wrong way on Sunday and they have problems Monday morning.”

 

The Welshpool area has become a magnet for European workers over the last seven years after EU work restrictions were lifted. Thousands of mainly young men have worked in and around the town, attracted by manual jobs paying higher salaries than they could expect to earn in their homeland.

 

The flyers will be posted in the letterboxes of all homes on the route over the next 24 hours.