{"id":14939,"date":"2026-07-01T08:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T08:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/14939\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T08:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T08:11:19","slug":"the-race-is-on-as-10000-rally-to-rescue-devons-iconic-little-poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/14939\/","title":{"rendered":"The race is on as 10,000 rally to rescue Devon\u2019s iconic \u2018Little Poland\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘This is a big piece of local history’\"Ilford<\/p>\n

Ilford Park Polish Home(Image: MoD Crown Copyright)<\/p>\n

Nearly 10,000 people have signed a petition calling on the government to step in and save Devon\u2019s own \u2018Little Poland\u2019.<\/p>\n

The future of the Ilford Park Polish Home at Stover – the country\u2019s last remaining \u2018hostel\u2019 for Polish veterans who served alongside British forces in the Second World War – is in doubt.<\/p>\n

It was opened under the Polish Resettlement Act in 1947 as part of the \u2018Winston Churchill Promise\u2019 that Britain would never forget its debt to Poland, but the number of people living there has dwindled to the point where its owner the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has begun a consultation on its future.<\/p>\n

Local campaigner Jerry Bird launched the online petition on the official UK government website, meaning that if it surpasses 10,000 signatures it will trigger an official government response. It currently stands at just over 9,700.<\/p>\n

If it reaches 100,000 before it closes at the end of November it will be considered for a debate in parliament.<\/p>\n

Mr Bird\u2019s petition says: \u201cWe call on the government to fund the continued operation of culturally appropriate retirement provision to Polish veterans and their families. Such homes provide culturally specific care for elderly residents. The last home of its kind, Ilford Park Polish Home, is due to be closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call on the government to provide funding to ensure there is culturally appropriate retirement provision for Polish veterans, such as the Ilford Park Polish Home.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s such an important issue. This has been a big piece of local history since the end of the Second World War.\u201d<\/p>\n

At its peak the Stover site housed 600 Poles in basic barrack blocks and a shared central hall. The original care home on the site fell into disrepair and a new one was opened in 1992.<\/p>\n

It has Pol\u00adish-speak\u00ading work\u00aders along with a Pol\u00adish priest. Pol\u00adish food is served to res\u00adid\u00adents and national hol\u00adi\u00addays are cel\u00adeb\u00adrated. The home can cater for up to 95 residents, but it currently houses just 40.<\/p>\n

The MoD consultation says the numbers have been declining steadily in recent years. coronavirus<\/a> led to a higher death rate in 2020\/2021 and new arrival numbers remain low.<\/p>\n

The MoD is encouraging anyone eligible to move to the home to do so, but it has made contingency plans to work with the charity sector and the local authority to source alternative accommodation for the remaining residents, funded by the MoD.<\/p>\n

A review of occupancy will be carried out next year – the 80th anniversary of its opening – with closure expected by 2028 if there are not enough people living there to support a \u2018viable community\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘This is a big piece of local history’ Ilford Park Polish Home(Image: MoD Crown Copyright) Nearly 10,000 people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2491,2493,9,122,2489],"class_list":["post-14939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-ministry-of-defence","tag-newton-abbot","tag-poland","tag-politics","tag-teignbridge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}