Council

Voice readers are broadly split 50/50 on whether new-build or refurbishment is the way forward for Spalding’s Castle Sports Complex, a survey has shown. South Holland district councillors and top officers are considering the leisure centre’s future provision, with the cost of a new-build put at more than £20million by leader Coun Gary Porter. A questionnaire in last week’s edition ...

Gedney might not have too many links to the Middle East but it could soon be supplying birds of prey reared in the village. And if a planning application to South Holland District Council is successful, it’s claimed that it could help reduce the frequency of birds being taken from the wild in Asia. The man behind the plan is ...

Five nights of resurfacing work on roads in Holbeach begin on Monday (October 20). The work will be carried out from 7pm-6am each day. During this time side roads Hurn Road and Foxes Low Road will be closed at the A17, which will have a convoy system in place. Satish Shah, head of Highways at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “We’ve scheduled ...

The UK Independence Party says it will have several candidates going for seats on South Holland District Council next year. It follows news that Spalding pub landlord Pete Williams is hoping to be the first member to represent the party on the council next May. However, the chairman of UKIP South Holland and Deepings cheekily predicted that The Punchbowl owner ...

The bill for Spalding’s proposed relief road is expected to be £100million. The Western Relief Road will run between Spalding Common and Spalding Road in Pinchbeck, bisecting Horseshoe Road and Bourne Road. It is designed to alleviate town centre traffic congestion. The cost of the road includes the construction of three bridges – two crossing the railway line and another over ...

Plans for 50 new homes in Crowland are set for outline approval by district councillors on Wednesday (Oct 22). Ashley King Developments Ltd, of Holbeach, wants to build off Peterborough Road. South Holland’s planning committee will also look again at an application for 39 homes at The Bull Hotel in Long Sutton’s Market Place. Officers recommend that completion of hotel ...

Residents are to be asked for ideas where a further £90million a year can be shaved from council spending. Lincolnshire County Council has warned that the need to make the huge annual saving could start to impact services as operating costs have been cut to the bone. The challenge has arisen after further reductions in the council’s Government funding and ...

Fresh projects that will improve, promote and attract visitors to Spalding town centre have a chance to apply for a slice of £59,500 funding. South Holland District Council has that amount left from a Springfields S106 pot. This was money provided by the developer of Springfields as part of a planning condition when permission was granted more than ten years ...

Top council officers have been tasked with the next stage of a review into the future of Spalding’s Castle Sports Complex. It comes after a leisure task group consisting of eight South Holland district councillors reported to cabinet on Tuesday after visits to five new-build and refurbished centres. One recommendation was £20,500 be provided to enable a full consultation exercise ...

Nick Kendrick works as a health and safety officer for Compass Point Business Services (East Coast) Limited, a back office service of South Holland District Council. Nick says each week brings different challenges – no two weeks are ever the same. “I see it as my duty to dispel the myths of ‘elf and safety’ and make sure that the ...

A new dance studio in Low Fulney is a step closer to receiving planning permission. Spalding School of Dance currently rents a base in Horseshoe Road, and wants to relocate to purpose-built premises in Rangell Gate, next to the home of school principal Claire Patman. The Environment Agency had objected to the original application due to a perceived flood risk ...

Almost a quarter of a million pounds in debts to South Holland District Council has been written off in this financial year alone. The £240,186.29 is made up of council tax and business rates plus former tenant arrears and housing benefit overpayments. However, the total is just a tiny percentage of the overall amount for which the council is responsible ...

Spalding pub landlord Pete Williams could become the first UKIP member on South Holland District Council. The owner of The Punchbowl in New Road is planning to stand for election in a Spalding ward next May – but won’t say which one at this stage. Mr Williams said: “I’ve not decided yet that I’ll definitely stand but if I do ...

Pupils at The Garth School in Spalding have new play equipment bought with donations from South Holland district councillors’ ward members’ budgets. Twenty members each contributed between £60 and £350 to give £2,370 to the special school. Pupils now have new weighted push-along toys, scooters, tricycles, wheelbarrows and buggies. There was even some left over to buy new screens. Coun ...

South Holland’s top leisure complex – Spalding’s Castle Sports Complex – has been declared not fit for purpose. That will perhaps come as no surprise to users of the swimming pool in Pinchbeck Road or the site’s ‘dry side’ in Albion Street. The complex is well used – with more than 306,000 visits during the last financial year – but ...

The campaigners behind Save Lincolnshire Libraries want to know why an MP is asking questions about Sheffield’s libraries but not Lincolnshire’s. Maurice Nauta has written to Ed Vaizey, the minister most in charge of public libraries, to ask why he is asking questions about Sheffield libraries but not Lincolnshire’s, despite being directly asked to by the Lincolnshire campaigners. In a ...

By South Holland District Council waste and recycling officer Laura Simpkins It has been a busy few weeks for the waste and recycling team, who have been out and about in the community, and further afield, to talk to residents and learn more about how we can improve our recycling service. On September 16 I was at Spalding market talking ...

The proposed number of flats which a Spalding pub could be converted into has been reduced. A resubmitted planning application for The Vine in Commercial Road requests permission for a change of use to four flats, not five. Spalding and District Civic Society, which commented on the original application that five was too many for the size of building, has ...

Holbeach has won its category in the CPRE Best Kept Village and Small Town competition 2014. After three rounds of voting, Holbeach just pipped Crowland to the title of best market town with fewer than 7,000 residents. It’s Holbeach’s first win for 17 years and has sparked celebrations among the hard-working Holbeach In Bloom committee, which comprises parish councillors, parish council ...

Plans for 37 new homes in Cowbit have been submitted to South Holland District Council. Holbeach firm Ashley King Developments wants to build the properties, which will include a 33 per cent provision for affordable housing, on 3.82 acres of land off Backgate. The plans originally included a village shop but after a public consultation it was dropped as a ...