News

Spalding and Long Sutton Leisure Centres will be run by a new company from March. South Holland District Council has chosen Parkwood to run the services, replacing 1Life. A spokesperson for South Holland District Council, said: “The five-year contract, which will commence on 1 March 2019, will include the management and operation of Castle Sports Complex and Pool in Spalding ...

Your story of the lady getting children to destroy figures of Santa Claus (St Nicholas), because he was not what Christmas was really about, makes sad reading. Children grow out of their belief in Santa quite naturally after a few years, and it’s an appealing fantasy for the young mind in the meantime. But what about that other fantasy so ...

Newly knighted South Holland and the Deepings MP Sir John Hayes has defended taking on three new jobs since May – one of which he estimated would pay him around £500 per hour. The jobs, listed on the House of Commons’ Register of Members Financial Interest, include advising an oil company and being president of a company that runs a ...

Market traders in Spalding claim to have lost a day’s takings after saying the district council’s Christmas lights switch-on forced them to abandon trading on Saturday. Trader Fee Taylor has run a toy stall at Spalding for five years and said traders at the Hall Place end of town were told two weeks ago they wouldn’t be able to pitch ...

Changes to a town bus service’s route have been described by a pensioner who relies on the bus as “punishing the elderly”. From Christmas Eve, the Brylaine (F42) IT1&2 services that serve Spalding town will see a section of the route cut when former bus stops at Thames Road and Severn Road are axed. The two bus stops were on ...

More than £16m is set to be spent on new affordable homes in South Holland over the next five years. A report to go before a special meeting of South Holland District Council’s cabinet on Monday outlines the proposals. The draft General Fund and Housing Revenue Account is on the agenda along with the medium term plan and capital strategy. ...

After 45 years of raising thousands of pounds for charity through coffee mornings, Lorna Webb has poured her last public cuppa. The 93-year-old, who is aided by a team of helpers, is now helping others take on the mantle of raising money for charity. Lorna herself hasn’t been counting how much she’s raised over the years, but it started when ...

It takes more than three hip operations and debilitating conditions to stop Jean Ruck from volunteering at Holbeach Hospital. This month marks 20 years of the Holbeach resident helping out at the hospital through its League of Friends. And at the monthly entertainment event she hosts for residents, this month with singing group Velvet Souls, the hospital surprised her with ...

Pupils from Weston St Mary C of E Primary School have helped plant 150 trees in the school grounds. The school teamed up with London North Eastern Railway (LNER) and Carbon Footprint as part of a new project which aims to raise awareness regarding environmental issues. A combination of Birch (Silver), Common Alder, Dog/Guelder Rose and Green Beech species, totalling ...

There are fears for the future of a Holbeach play area which was due to be refurbished. The Hall Hill Road site is owned by South Holland District Council and there is money in the bank to provide new equipment. But the parish council has been trying to secure a lease for 18 months in order to release the cash ...

It’s your last chance to help make a child’s Christmas by donating to the Give a Gift appeal. We’ve had a fantastic response so far but every gift will unwrap a whole world of delight for a young person aged between three and 14 on Christmas Day who might otherwise receive nothing. The generous people at Westlode Fisheries in Spalding ...

There’s been a significant increase in the theft of bikes with one Spalding mum urging others to be vigilant after her 11-year-old son’s bike he’d bought himself with birthday money was stolen in the town centre. Nichola Good is warning people to wary after son Thomas’s silver Carrera bike was taken while locked up outside Barclay’s Bank in the town. The ...

Mobile fingerprint scanners will be introduced by Lincolnshire Police in a bid to save the force £1.8m. Police will make 130 scanners available at a cost of £29,000. A police spokesman said the scanners will allow officers to take fingerprints on the spot, rather than having to take people to a police station. They will also be used to identify ...

Today (Friday, December 14) marks exactly 100 years since the first women voted in a General Election. And to celebrate, some prominent local women held a Suffragettes Tea Party at Ayscoughfee Hall last week where they paid tribute to those women who helped take huge steps in the fight towards equality. They included Jennifer Alcock who recently found out her ...

A Gedney Hill shop has been robbed at gunpoint. Around 9pm on Thursday, December 6, a man entered the McColl’s Shop on Hillgate in Gedney Hill and threatened a member of staff with a shotgun.  Police said no one was injured and the man made off with a quantity of cash.  He is believed to have left the area in a ...

A person has died after being struck by a train in Pinchbeck in the early hours of this morning (Friday). British Transport Police attended a call at Blue Gowt Lane just after 3am. A police statement said: “‘Officers were called to the line close to Pinchbeck at 03.19am this morning following reports a person had been struck by a train. ...

Children as young as four were told Santa wasn’t real by a charity worker in a primary school assembly and pupils were told to demonstrate this by smashing chocolate figures with a hammer, parents have claimed. The pupils crushed chocolate Santas and reindeers at Fleet Wood Lane School in an assembly taken by Emily Taylor, an official children’s worker from ...

Spalding’s Johnson Hospital should be upgraded to a ‘super urgent treatment centre’, says a letter from MP Sir John Hayes. Following news that the hospital may become a GP hub instead of a minor injuries unit, Sir John sought reassurance that this would not happen from the chief operating officer of South Lincs CCG Andrew Rix, who told him the ...

Santa popped in to help The Meadows Day Centre celebrate its first Christmas as a newly independent charity. The centre, which provides a place for the local elderly people to go and mingle together, put on two huge Christmas parties for its regulars on Monday and Tuesday. As well as fantastic musical entertainment and turkey dinner, the staff put on ...

The annual St Nicholas Fair in Holbeach had an amazing light show this year for the first time. A variety of local businesses took part in the event which saw crowds of visitors on Friday and Saturday around the church of All Saints’. The traditional fayre was first started in 2014 by the Holbeach Regeneration organisation. This year the children ...