The city hit the national headlines again today – but once again for all the wrong reasons. The Daily Express decided to splash on our ‘migrant squatter shambles’ and the headline was promptly picked up by other news channels including BBC Five Live breakfast show.
For a city trying to attract new companies to relocate to Peterborough and help kickstart new jobs, new homes and new opportunities out in the wider communities, it’s enough to make you weep.
If ever there was a PR job to do, now is the time.
Yes, there’s no denying there are issues with migrant workers living rough on our streets (and roundabouts!) and the associated issues this inevitably throws up in local schools, health centres and so on.
And Peterborough is by no means the perfect haven to set up business or home. We have our fair share of problems. But for every negative story, there will be a positive one – people just don’t bother talking about them any more.
Bigging up the city, rather than knocking it at every possible chance, is the job of us all. The local authorities (the council but also the hospital trust), government-funded agencies (Opportunity Peterborough), business groups (the chamber), media outlets (the ET, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire), leading local companies (Perkins, Thomas Cook), high profile individuals (those without a political point to make), all need to be shouting about the good things happening here.
If the positive PR doesn’t start from within then we will never get away from the typical Express headline. Other national press have carried similar sorry tales about the city in recent months and unfortunately these set the stall by which people outside the city judge us.
It’s not a great position to be in – but it’s not irreversible, it just needs some positive thinking from within.
Let’s all be more positive about our home city.
Dawn Strange
Accounts Director
[ back to top ]
0 comments:
Post a Comment