Migrants keep the hotel fires burning amid the rainy Lakeland fells / Guardian, 13 March 2007
http://digbig.com/4rwmt
Angela Balakrishnan
"Immigration Ambleside
Walking into Lucy's bistro, you might be forgiven for thinking you were in the heart of Europe. It's not just the rustic Mediterranean decor, even the staff greeting customers at the door are Spanish, Italian and east European. But this is not the kind of place usually associated with continental cafe society: this is Ambleside, surrounded not by sun-baked hills but by the glowering fells of the Lake District. Across Cumbria, migrant workers now form 25% of the tourism workforce - 26,000 people. Five years ago there were hardly any, so their arrival solved what threatened to be a severe skills shortage, says Ian Stephens, chief executive of Cumbria Tourism."