Community

Individuals are being invited to get involved in a new project designed to create a community shed where they can get together, socialise and share skills. The new Men’s Shed South Holland project seeks to create a shared space to work on individual or group projects in a friendly environment. Heidi Haxeltine, of Lincolnshire Community and Voluntary Service, has been ...

Food manufacturer Bakkavor and Spalding health and wellbeing charity Tonic Health have teamed up again to promote healthy eating. The second educational workshop for schoolchildren aged from 5 to 12 focused on wraps and other nutritious alternatives to bread. It followed another successful workshop last month on the importance of fruit and salads for a healthy diet. These workshops are ...

A first fundraising calendar for Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance was so popular that the person who came up with the idea has made a date to do it all again. The venture by Surfleet resident Rachel Rodgers raised £4,747 for the charity, which needs £2.1m a year. Rachel set up Twitter account @LincsSkies last year, enabling photographers to share ...

A book of bygone stories from a Girl Guiding group in Spalding has been published with financial support from the ward member’s budget of six South Holland district councillors. “Memories of 2nd Spalding Guide Company 1941-1965″ has been produced by District Guiding commissioners Bridget Scase and Jane Amess in tribute to Mary Waters, who was involved with the Guiding movement for 76 years ...

Staff and volunteers are busy making final preparations for the reopening of Holbeach Library in a new location on Monday.(Feb 13) The facility, now being run by non-profit organisation Greenwich Leisure Ltd, is part of a £1.2million project by Lincolnshire Co-op to create a community hub at its Fleet Street site. An open plan area also houses a pharmacy and ...

Holbeach fundraiser Les Ward has scrapped his plans to put on a Christmas market and parade in the town this year. The 73-year-old blamed difficulties in getting approval for a road closure in High Street. Mr Ward said: “I’m finished with it. I had people willing to help me but I just felt there was no way forward with the ...

Popular Spalding covers band Zebra bid farewell to long-serving lead guitarist Phil Wright with an emotional gig at The Granary in Long Sutton last Saturday.(Jan 28) Lead singer Kev Arnold said: “It’s a sad day for us as we have all been friends for a long time but a new chapter in Zebra’s evolution.” The band will reveal the Gibson ...

Here’s a roll call of almost everybody involved in Crowland Amateur Dramatic Society’s forthcoming panto Jack and the Beanstalk. And as a tribute to society founder member and town dentist John Hartley, who died in November 2015, the show will use the script which he wrote 39 years ago. Producer John Munton – another founder member and now chairman of ...

2017 is going to see some momentous occasions in Spalding’s musical history.     Not only is it 50 years since BBQ67 and the second Spalding Beer and Music Festival, but Zebra’s lead guitarist is playing in his last gig on Saturday night at The Granary in Long Sutton.   Phil (Walter Trout) Wright first played with the band 33 years ago and ...

Community groups, local businesses and associations are all being encouraged to take part in this year’s Holbeach Flower Festival.     The event runs from Thursday, April 27, until Monday, May 1, and organisers are hoping that as many people as possible will get involved in the community project.   This year’s theme will be Noah’s Ark which organisers hope ...

The charity LIVES has issued a plea for continued financial support after experiencing its busiest year on record. It responded to 20,516 emergency calls to patients across Lincolnshire in 2016 – an increase of more than 2,000 on the previous year.  The trend of increasing calls is continuing into 2017 with LIVES responders kept exceptionally busy over the new year ...

The RAF Association is calling on people to attend the funeral of RAF  veteran Edward Scott who has passed away aged 91. Mr Scott served in the RAF as part of 154 Squadron during the Second  World War as an engineer. He has few known family and it is feared  that he will have no one to commemorate him as ...

A wind farm developer is putting £52,000 per year into a community fund over the lifetime of the farm. Wryde Croft Wind Farm, which became fully operational in March last year, has 13 turbines between Crowland and Thorney. The area of benefit for grants (6km radius of the farm) includes Crowland, Fleet, Gedney Hill, Holbeach, Sutton St Edmund and Whaplode. ...

The star attraction at the annual Johnson Community Hospital ball this summer is Strictly Come Dancing stars Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag.  The pair will hit the dance floor as special guests of The Strictly Johnson Glitter Ball at Springfields Events and Conference Centre in Spalding on Saturday, July 8. The ball committee is offering sponsorship packages for the ...

A South Holland couple are aiming to raise awareness about a charity that has the potential to save lives.     Philip and Heather James, of Fleet Hargate, are championing the cause for the Medical Detection Dogs charity.   They have launched an online petition which is aiming to get 10,000 signatures to ensure the charity’s lack of funding will ...

Who doesn’t need more laughter in their lives? It’s supposed to be the best medicine (except maybe for those recovering from abdominal surgery!) On Blue Monday – the January day deemed by some to be the most depressing of the year – we decided to try out a Laughter Yoga session in Spalding. Here’s Louise Chapman’s take… Laughter yoga felt ...

Carers and individuals connected with people living with dementia are invited to a training course aimed at helping them to set up therapeutic gardening activities. ‘Gardening for the Brain’ is a new one-day training course being held by South Holland District Council in conjunction with Green Synergy, a charity which uses community gardening and horticultural therapy to help improve people’s ...

Artists have just a couple of weeks left to enter a competition designed to showcase the best work created by professionals and amateurs across the region. Deadline for entries into the 17th South Holland Open Arts Exhibition is Monday, January 30. Artists can submit their work and an independent panel of judges will choose the pieces which will be displayed at ...

Holbeach Library is due to open in its new location next month – and volunteer opportunities are on offer. Lincolnshire Co-op’s £1.2million project to create a hub of community services will also see the town’s Post Office and the retailer’s pharmacy move from High Street to its Fleet Street site alongside a revamped food store. Everything is set to re-open on Monday, February 13. There ...

A Spalding man who earned the Rotary Young Leadership Award has been recounting his rewarding experience. Jack Wycherley (26) was The Rotary Club of South Holland candidate and went to a members’ meeting on Tuesday (January 10) to be presented with the award and talk about his experiences at Grafham Water, near Huntingdon, last July. He spoke about the friends he had made, the ...