Wisbech - Wisbech in The News

Wisbech in The News

There are two free newspapers distributed within the town, the Wisbech Standard (owned by Archant) and the Fenland Citizen.

The Tesco store in Cromwell Road was one of three stores (the other two being in Kent) chosen to run an initial trial of the Clubcard loyalty card. The trial ran from October 1993 and due to the success of this trial, the Clubcard programme was rolled out nationwide in February 1995.

The "rabbits on the roundabout" caused considerable discussion. A number of rabbits took up residence on a town centre roundabout, causing damage to the flowers and shrubs. Locals compounded the issue by dumping piles of salad 'seconds' on the roundabout for the rabbits to eat. Despite calls to remove the rabbits, local opposition prevailed. The rabbits remained, much to the humour of outside observers. The roundabout has now been landscaped with maritime 'rabbit-friendly' features to link to the nearby riverside redevelopment. Since then, an outbreak of myxomatosis took hold of the 'Wisbech warren', and killed many of the animals. A pest control company removed the rest. Rabbits are now conspicuous by their absence from the roundabout, which remains professionally landscaped.

According to a study looking into immigration patterns, Wisbech was once identified as the seventh "most English" town in Britain by Sky News However, on 16 February 2008 a report in the Daily Express titled "Death Of A Country Idyll" wrote about how the influx of Eastern European immigrants may have caused the increase of crime and other illegal activities. Then on 20 February 2008 The Fenland Citizen contained an article opposing the Daily Express article.

In January 2012 the Daily Mail ran a story following the murder of Alisa Dmitrijeva a Latvian teenager and resident of Wisbech whose body was found on the Queen's Sandringham estate. The article alleged that the quintessentially English town had been taken over by a sinister Eastern European drug and crimes ring nicknamed the 'Baltic Mafia' who were terrifying local residents. The article reported that there had been five murders within the Eastern European community from Wisbech within the last two years.

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