Polish invasion that has SAVED my home city: Classrooms at bursting point and locals feeling pushed out - but this influx has brought life back to Southampton, writes BARBARA DAVIES

Shelves in the busy Malinka delicatessen groan beneath piles of pickled vegetables, fish and canned meats. A mother with a baby in a pram jokes with the dark-haired shop assistant - speaking quickly and in Polish. Step outside the shop and there are two Polish hairdressers, a Polish newsagent (inset), several Polish supermarkets (main), Polish off-licences, car mechanics and even a pressed juice company (its owner pictured right). Yet this isn't a boulevard in Krakow, but Southampton's Shirley Road. Here, BARBARA DAVIES, writes how an influx of 25,000 Poles have changed the area almost beyond recognition - and injected life back in to the town's economy